Question 6
- List four ways through which governments regulate businesses.
- Differentiate between privatization and commercialization.
- Explain four reasons a country may decide to privatize state-owned enterprises.
Observation
Most candidates who attempted this question did not do well. They don’t seems to understand how governments regulate businesses and privatization and commercialization.
The expected responses to the question include:
(a) Ways through which governments regulate businesses
- Registration of business name.
- Patent
- Trademark
- Copyright
- Safety and Health Act
- Employment and Labour Protection Act
- Consumer Protection Act
(b) Privatization is the process of handing over public owned companies to private investors as new managers and owners of the business while commercialization is the process of making a public enterprise more efficient and profit oriented.
(c) Reasons a government may privatize state owned enterprises.
i. State owned enterprises may be privatised to make them more profit oriented.
ii. Privatization could be done to generate revenue for government.
iii. Privatization could be done to remove government influence on the business.
iv. It enhances liberalization of the market and allows investors to compete.
v. It brings about efficiency in operating businesses as management is no longer in the hands of civil servants.
vi. It enables consumers to have choice as government ownership often results in monopoly.