Managing post-privatisation challenges: a review of Nigeria’s electricity sector

Often privatisation is perceived as a magic wand that would eliminate the ineffectiveness in service provisioning. But usually, this does not happen, especially in most economically, politically, and administratively weak countries of sub-Saharan Africa. The objective of this study is to interrogate the policy options towards managing post-privatisation challenges. Using historical data sourced from official documents, media clips, extant literature and other documentary sources, the paper examines the post-privatisation collaboration efforts of the Nigerian government to ensure the success of the privatisation of the electricity infrastructure. The author argues that privatisation should not be seen as a one-off conclusive activity in which the government divests from a privatised entity and at best merely regulates, but rather should be perceived as a continuous process of collaboration with the private sector through interventionist role of the government to improve and sustain service delivery to the citizens.