Privatisation of the Nigerian Railway Corporation: an evaluation of critical choices

Abstract

An efficient transport system is a catalyst for economic development the world over, therefore rail transport plays a significant role in the socio-economic activity of any nation. The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) is currently confronted with numerous problems ranging from operational, capacity building, management and customer patronage (Adesanya, 2010; Osborne, 1993). Successive governments at various times have all played a part in an effort to make the service efficient, productive, operate maximally and at best profitable but to no avail. Several billions of dollars have been expended on rail transport at different times to rejuvenate the service and make it operationally viable, but there is little evidence to justify all sums of money invested on the service let alone the impact of government intervention felt in resuscitating the rail transport (Ademiluyi and Dina, 2011; Adeyemo and Salami, 2008; Jerome, 2008). Research methodology includes a review of relevant theories such as agency theory, property right theory, resource-based theory, and contingency theory, a comparative analysis of the UK privatisation of the national rail system as well as rail privatisation in Africa. Survey questionnaire was used to solicit information from informed consent respondents on four virtual survey samples identified and considered for the study. The study results and statistical hypothesis tests of counterfactual opinion carried out on the research purpose was inconclusive. The survey indicated that 3 out of 4 samples tested concluded that there was no evidence to suggest a relationship between a choice of privatisation method and NRC performance. However, results of other sample indicated that there is strong relationship between privatisation of NRC and its performance indicators. Although there is no relationship between the choice of privatisation method and NRC performance, there is strong evidence to suggest that there is a relationship between privatisation and improvement of NRC performance indicators.