The Nigerian government has concluded plans to dispose off at least 36 of its properties between now and November 2022, starting with the privatisation of 19 key national assets in its new drive at managing its economic responsibilities to its citizens.
Pundits wondered why the Buhari-led government is just considering this move since experts had argued over the years that privatization of government owned enterprises is an important instrument for the revitalisation and optimisation whilst also improving the overall efficiency of public sector entities.
But the Director-General, Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Alex Okoh, stated back in 2018 that about 37 per cent of the enterprises that have been privatised or commercialised were not doing extremely well due to macro-economic issues, fiscal problems and other issues, when the government privatised or commercialised 142 asset.
With dwindling crude oil revenues and the ever-increasing costs of governance, the Federal Government has again resorted to privatization as a means of improving liquidity, reducing operating costs and improving the operational efficiency of certain government assets given the depth of resources and higher levels of expertise that is abound in the private sector.
Through this step, the government intends to use the proceeds realized from the disposal of these assets to fund the 2021 budget.
The assets cut across energy, industries, communications and infrastructure, and will be disposed of using different sale strategies. Some of the assets will be privatized using a ‘core investor sale’ which involves a sale of at least 51% of the shares of an entity while others will be privatized of by way of asset sales or more temporary arrangements such as commercialization and concession.
The schedule of the proposed FGN-owned assets for privatization include Yola Electricity Distribution Company, Mineral House in Lagos, Geregu Power and Zungeru Hydropower Plant and many others.
Check the full list attached.
FGN-Concludes-Plans-to-Privatise-Key-Assets-
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