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Private Money Worth Its Weight In Gold
Forbes Africa
|August 2017
Private Money Worth Its Weight In Gold
State participation in the mining sector is a throwback to the socialist mind-set that once formed the premise of many national companies. Few West African nations have contemplated setting up an organization to oversee and harness their country’s natural resources. The free market system has trumped state sentiment in ensuring that the sector is managed effectively and efficiently by private companies whose main aim is to create shareholder value.
In Africa, there have been several attempts to establish state-owned organizations to oversee the commercial development of natural resources. In 1986, Burkina Faso established the Comptoir Burkinabe des Metaux et Precieux. Structural Adjustment Programmes brought operations to a grinding halt. Globally, state-owned enterprises have seen two renaissance periods: initially in the 1960s and 1970s and recently in the early 2000s with Chinese companies taking the lead. Fears about the efficiency of how the states have been run have been the main sticking point for many critics.
This story is from the August 2017 edition of Forbes Africa.
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