This paper assesses the performance of the "National Textbook Development and Distribution Policy for Pre-Tertiary Education" of 2002. It examines the policy in theory and in practice by exploring the extent to which the liberalisation of the textbook trade has helped to improve on textbook procurement, production and distribution, availability, quality and access to the books. The paper discusses the context leading to the transition from the state-controlled policies to the present liberalised textbook provision policies in Africa. The tensions that marked the transition period and the role of the World Bank and other development agencies in the policy shift have also been discussed. The paper identifies a number of implementation challenges stalling the full realisation of the objectives of the textbook policy including the Ministry of Education's interference in the textbook procurement process and some publishers' and authors' abuse of the conflict of interest regulation in the policy. The paper makes a number of recommendations for consideration.