Privatisation of state-owned enterprises in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is accelerating, according to this study, and has already progressed much further than previous reports have indicated. Up to now, the analysis of the privatisation in sub-Saharan Africa has been based on very incomplete and out of date data.
The new results, which includes statistics for 1165 enterprises in 32 countries, provide the most comprehensive picture so far of the progress of privatisation in Africa. They show that there were at least three times as many sales transactions during the period 1980-95 than previously reported. There are still serious economic and political constraints hampering the implementation of privatisation programmes, however. As yet, there is also remarkably little information on post-privatisation performance of state-owned enterprises.
