When We Mistake the Steering Wheel for the Driver

Few policy debates spark as much passion and misunderstanding as privatisation. In Africa and the developing world, privatisation is seen as a fix for inefficient state-owned enterprises, while corporatisation is a compromise of public ownership and private discipline. Others believe governments should keep control of key assets for sovereignty and long-term growth. After decades of global experimentation, the key lesson is that the real question isn't who owns an organisation but whether leaders have the competence, integrity, discipline, and courage to govern well. We often focus on ownership because it's visible, but governance and human behaviour, which are less obvious, are more crucial.

History has conducted the experiment: nearly every ownership model has succeeded somewhere and failed elsewhere. Public enterprises have become global leaders, while private companies have collapsed. Corporatised organisations have transformed economies, yet others are mere political labels. The evidence shows ownership sets legal responsibility, governance ensures accountability, and human behaviour determines performance.

NyansaKasa (Words of Wisdom)

"Changing the owner of a vehicle does not automatically improve the driver's judgement."

Reflection: Institutions are transformed less by new shareholders than by stronger leadership, disciplined governance and responsible human behaviour.

History Has Already Conducted the Experiment

Britain's rail reforms show ownership reform alone can't ensure success. The 1990s privatisation aimed to boost efficiency and competition, but fragmentation across infrastructure, operations, and maintenance caused coordination issues. This led to government intervention with Great British Railways. The lesson isn't that private participation fails, but that governance, regulation, and institutional coordination are equally important. England's water industry highlights issues despite private ownership, like ageing infrastructure, sewage discharges, debt, and underinvestment. Consumers mainly care about clean, reliable water and maintained infrastructure, regardless of ownership. Corporate history reinforces the same lesson. Enron in the United States, Carillion in the United Kingdom and Wirecard in Germany were all privately owned companies operating in competitive markets. Their spectacular collapses were not failures of public ownership but failures of governance, ethics, oversight and leadership. Private ownership neither guarantees excellence nor prevents institutional decline.

NyansaKasa (Words of Wisdom)

"Changing uniforms without changing habits merely creates better-dressed problems."

Reflection: Organisational transformation begins inside people long before it appears on organisational charts.

Why Corporatisation Sometimes Succeeds Where Privatisation Fails

If poorly governed privatisation teaches one lesson, successful corporatisation teaches another. Proper corporatisation is far more than a change in an organisation's legal structure. It deliberately separates ownership from day-to-day management, strengthens independent boards, introduces commercial discipline, and allows professional executives to manage without unnecessary political interference.

Singapore exemplifies this principle well. Through Temasek Holdings, the government is a major shareholder in key companies such as Singapore Airlines, PSA International, and DBS Bank, while separating ownership from management. These firms excel globally because of professional governance, rigorous measurement, and merit-based leadership, underscoring the importance of governance over ownership.

Morocco's OCP Group exemplifies state-led success, remaining state-owned while becoming a leading phosphate and fertiliser firm through investments in technology, research, logistics, and partnerships. China has followed a similar path, with companies like State Grid, COSCO, and CRRC gaining global competitiveness through management, innovation, and strategic planning rather than privatisation.

These examples demonstrate that governments can remain responsible shareholders without becoming day-to-day managers. They also remind us that corporatisation succeeds only when governance reforms become genuine rather than cosmetic.

Africa Is Asking the Wrong Question

Africa's debate on state-owned enterprises has long been seen as a contest between public ownership and privatisation, but this oversimplifies a complex reality. The challenge isn't choosing between ownership types, but building institutions that consistently deliver value, regardless of ownership. History shows that both models have successes and failures, with the quality of governance, leadership, and stewardship as the key factors.

Privatisation has attracted investment, modernised sectors, and increased competition across the continent. However, it has sometimes replaced public with private monopolies, raising prices without improving service. Many state-owned enterprises struggle not because of government ownership but due to boards lacking independence, appointments based on patronage, and accountability falling to politics. Ownership remains debated, and governance issues persist.

Institutional reform should start with an honest assessment of governance, not ideology. Governments must build leadership, governance, and accountability before considering privatisation, corporatisation, or commercialisation. Without strong foundations, ownership changes are like rearranging furniture in a house with weak foundations.

NyansaKasa (Words of Wisdom)

"Ownership determines who signs the share certificate. Character determines whether the organisation creates lasting value."

Reflection: Institutions are remembered less for who owned them than for how responsibly they were governed.

The Institutions That Will Build Africa

Africa's greatest competitive opportunity, therefore, lies not in embracing one ownership ideology over another but in becoming the continent with the strongest institutional governance. The countries that will prosper over the coming decades will be those that consistently appoint boards based on competence rather than political loyalty, recruit executives on merit rather than patronage, and protect professional management from unnecessary interference while holding it rigorously accountable for results.

This requires audit committees willing to challenge rather than merely endorse, risk committees capable of identifying tomorrow's threats before they become today's crises, and procurement systems that pursue genuine value for money rather than procedural compliance alone. It also demands organisational cultures where integrity is rewarded, innovation is encouraged, and performance is measured not by political rhetoric but by service delivery, customer satisfaction, financial sustainability, and long-term national impact.

These principles apply equally to public enterprises, corporatised entities, privately owned companies, and public-private partnerships. They are not ownership principles. They are leadership principles. They are governance principles. Above all, they are human principles.

Perhaps this is where Africa's next institutional revolution must begin: not by asking who should own our strategic enterprises, but by asking what kind of leaders, directors, executives, and citizens those enterprises require to compete successfully in an increasingly demanding global economy.

NyansaKasa (Words of Wisdom)

"The strongest institutions are built long before their strongest profits appear."

Reflection: Financial success is usually the visible consequence of years of disciplined leadership, sound governance and responsible organisational behaviour.

The Most Inconvenient Truth of All

History rarely remembers institutions because of their ownership structures. Citizens do not wake each morning asking who owns the electricity company; they ask whether the lights remain on. They seldom concern themselves with whether a railway is publicly or privately owned; they simply expect trains to operate safely, reliably and efficiently. Patients entering hospitals are far less interested in ownership models than in receiving competent, timely and compassionate care. Society ultimately judges institutions not by ideology but by outcomes.

Ownership undoubtedly matters. Governance matters even more. Human behaviour matters most of all.

Africa's future will therefore not be secured by privatisation alone. Nor by corporatisation alone. Nor by commercialisation, public-private partnerships or continued state ownership in isolation. Every one of these models has succeeded somewhere. Everyone has failed somewhere. The decisive variable has consistently been the quality of governance and the conduct of the human beings entrusted with leadership.

The continent's future will instead be shaped by institutions where integrity consistently triumphs over expediency, competence over patronage, long-term stewardship over short-term politics and accountability becomes an embedded culture rather than an attractive slogan. Such institutions inspire confidence, attract investment, strengthen industrialisation and create sustainable prosperity.

NyansaKasa (Words of Wisdom)

"Ownership decides who holds the keys. Character decides whether the doors remain open."

Reflection: Great institutions are not remembered because ownership changed. They are remembered because courageous leaders transformed cultures, strengthened governance, inspired trust and consistently served society with integrity.

Privatisation may transfer ownership. Corporatisation may strengthen governance structures. Commercialisation may sharpen financial discipline. Public-private partnerships may combine complementary strengths. Yet only the transformation of human behaviour creates institutions capable of serving generations rather than election cycles.

Perhaps that is the most inconvenient truth of all.

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By Ing. Professor Douglas K. Boateng
Chartered Director (UK) | Chartered Engineer (UK) | Fellow, Institute of Directors (UK) | Fellow, Ghana Institution of Engineering | Governance, Industrialisation and Supply Chain Strategist