Collaborative Public Management in Nigeria-Governance and Performance Insights on the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme

Abstract

Numerous changes have occurred in public management in the last 5 decades aimed at creating an interface between the tripod of public, private, and voluntary sectors using several governance tools in the delivery of public goods and services, with the collaborative public management (CPM) governance mechanism attracting global attention. This paper provided analytical insights on the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) which it regarded as a brand of CPM in Nigeria. The paper is theoretical and employed the descriptive-analytical design which relied on secondary data culled from newspapers, journal articles, textbooks, and the internet. From the data, it was clear that certain features such as governance structure, stakeholder composition, modus operandi, performance index among others characterized the ABP as a CPM governance mechanism. Actor-behaviour was identified as a primary challenge of the ABP precipitating other challenges. Nevertheless, the paper arrived at the conclusion that the ABP as a version of CPM looks potentially successful in Nigeria provided the right environment is created for it to thrive.