which of the following is not a method of controlling monopoly

Analyze the question: We need the option that is NOT a way of controlling monopoly.

Concept: Governments control monopoly power to protect consumers from high prices, restricted output, and exploitation. Common methods include:

• Preventing mergers and takeovers that would create or strengthen monopolies
• Imposing taxes on excess (supernormal) profits
• Price control or regulation
• Encouraging competition, e.g. by removing barriers to entry
• Privatization/deregulation of state monopolies, which opens the market to competing private firms (e.g. telecommunications in Nigeria after NITEL's monopoly ended)
• Anti-monopoly legislation

Going through the options:

• A. Preventing mergers: This is a control method, because it stops firms from combining to dominate a market.
• B. Indigenization: This means transferring ownership of foreign-owned businesses to a country's citizens (as in Nigeria's Indigenization Decree of 1972). Its aim is local ownership, not reducing monopoly power. A business can be fully indigenized and still be a monopoly. So it is not a method of controlling monopoly.
• C. Privatization: Selling state-owned monopolies to private owners and allowing competition is generally regarded as a way of curbing monopoly, particularly government monopoly.
• D. Imposing high profit tax: This reduces the excess profits a monopolist earns, so it is a control method.

Answer: B, indigenization, is the option that is not a method of controlling monopoly.

Exam tip: Link each term to its purpose. Indigenization = ownership by locals; privatization = competition and efficiency; anti-merger laws, price control, and profit taxes = direct monopoly control. When you see "NOT" in a question, test each option against the definition and eliminate the ones that clearly fit.