Uche Usim, Abuja
The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) on Wednesday disclosed that it has so completed transactions on 234 enterprises since the inception of the Federal Government’s privatisation programme in 1999.
It further disclosed that plans were afoot to divest from the 10 newly-built gas-fired National Integrated Power Projects (NIPPs) when completed.
The Director-General of BPE Mr Alex Okoh made the disclosures recently at the Nigerian Investment Showcase at Guildhall, London, with the theme: “Public Sector Deals Recently”.
A BPE statement said Okoh listed the milestones recorded by the privatisation programme to include: expanding private sector participation in the Nigerian economy; attracting quality foreign investors and capital; achieving a more efficient allocation of government resources by redirecting funding of public enterprises by government to other key sectors of the economy that are socially imperative such as healthcare, education; and encouraging the private sector to be the engine room of economic growth and development.
Okoh said the reform and privatisation programme of the Federal Government has impacted positively on key sectors including telecoms, pension and seaports.
The telecoms sector, he said, has achieved almost 100% teledensity with over 192 million connected lines, while over 146 million lines have been active as at May 31, 2015 and over 40 telecoms licensed in the country.
He said reform in the sector has also brought about over a million direct and indirect jobs into the Nigerian economy, while the ICT sub-sector has similarly witnessed phenomenal growth.
On pension reforms, Okoh stated that 6.2 million contributors were registered from 180,586 employers as at October 2012 while 55,904 retirees currently receive timely monthly pensions, with the total value of pension industry assets under the Contributory Pension Scheme now at over N9 trillion.
With regards to seaports, the BPE boss said they now experience faster ship, cargo and truck turn-round times, with increased competition, lower port charges, lower freight rates and net financial transfers to the government (lease fees, throughput fees and taxes).
On the Bureau’s 2019 work plan, Okoh revealed that the BPE is expected to contribute N220.4 billion to the N8.91trillion 2019 Federal Government’s budget from its privatisation/commercialisation activities.
The funds are expected to come from concluded transactions along with proceeds from the privatisation of the Kano Free Trade and Calabar Free Trade Zones, partial commercialisation of the Nigerian Postal Services (NIPOST) and partial commercialisation of three national parks.