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Western Nigeria development board: modified Colonial agency for public-private partnerships


Marklene Chinatu Ugbogu

Abstract

The grandiose objective for the use of public-private partnerships involving foreign capitalists, indigenous entrepreneurs and the government of the Western Nigeria  was the insatiable quest of the latter for development to create a society in which ‘ life more abundant’ was realized. Corollary to that factor were the inadequacy of managerial, technical and skilled African manpower vis a-vis the pool of monetary reserves built by the rescinding colonial British administration from overseas sale of cash crops. The government of the Western Region of Nigeria set up the Western Nigeria Development Corporation (WNDC), which operated with relatively extensive autonomy under the oversight of the Ministry of Trade and Industry. Over fourteen partnerships were formed through a network of efforts involving Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Ministry of Economic Planning, Economic Missions, Industrial  Promotion Commission and the WNDC. Compared with the ventures whose equities  were fully owned by the government, the public- private partnerships performed better. This paper focuses on the partnerships policy, formations and operations of the companies jointly owned by the WNDC on behalf of the government and the private companies. This essay is a contribution to the literature on the relatively least discussed corporation yet the most critical development agency that utilized the reserves of the Western Region Marketing Board.


Keywords: Government, public-private enterprises, partnerships, companies and management


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eISSN: 2992-4472
print ISSN: 1596-6216