The post-independence Africa adopted a command and control economy with state ownership seen as an essential instrument for achieving economic independence and planned development. The belief that a core category of essential goods and services, such as electricity, water, telecommunications, transport, education, should be served by state either for security reasons or purposes of economic redistribution strongly influenced this view. State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) were seen as vehicle to promote economic development, reduce mass unemployment and / or ensure national control over the overall direction of the economy (Khan, 2005: 5). With time, the SOEs developed an image of mismanagement and further faced the allegations of maladministration, lack of efficiency, poor performance and inadequate service delivery. Ultimately, most of them faced financial deficits and hampered the economy at the macro level. Consequently, many governmen