The development policy discourse in post-colonial states in Africa has always revolved around the debate on the balance between the roles of the state and the private sector in the national economy.
Upon the end of colonialism in the 1960s, most of the newly independent African countries led by the newly crowned black elite opted for state-led development as a result of the influence of the Soviet Union and its socialist ideals and the prevailing belief that the state was better placed to lead the development