Can the Performance of State-Owned Enterprises improve when privatized? A Case study of Ghanaian based firms

Abstract: After almost two decades that privatization took place in Africa, especially in Ghana, there is not much empirical knowledge concerning the financial and operating performance of privatized firms. This study is designed to compare the financial and operating performance of pre and post privatization process in Ghana. The indicators examined are profitability, operating efficiency, output, capital investment, employment, leverage and dividend. Since the sample size is small the researcher used Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test to test for the significant of the difference between pre and post privatization performance indicators. The study measures the change in the performance indicators by comparing its average value for five years before and five years after privatization. There is no convincing evidence that suggest significant change in financial and operating performance after privatization.