Onyinye Nwachukwu, Abuja
The director-general of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Alex Okoh, says the agency has so far privatised 142 government assets, out of which over 52 are not performing.
Okoh blamed the poor performance of the enterprises on the country’s operating business environment, which he said has seen many private or privatised public enterprises either close down or relocate to neighbouring countries.
Okoh said 63 of the 142 privatised enterprises, were through core investor sale, nine through guided liquidation, one through sale to existing shareholders, five through public offer and two, through liquidation. He added that eight were privatised through private placement, 41 through concession, two through debt/equity swap and 11 through sale of assets.
Receiving members of the House of Representatives Committee on Privatisation, led by its chairman, Ahmed Yerima, who were on an oversight visit to the Bureau in Abuja, Okoh said 94 of the said enterprises have been monitored while the rest have not, because “some were either assets sale or in the first phase of privatisation and as such did not fall within the BPE’s monitoring purview.”
He said 63 percent of the privatised enterprises were doing well, while the remaining 37 percent were not performing.
Breaking down the privatised assets, by sector, he said, five were in agriculture mechanisation, eight in automobiles, seven in banking and insurance, six in brick making and six in the cement sector.
The others, he listed are 10 in energy construction and services, 12 in hotels and tourism, eight in oil and gas, four in paper and packaging, 19 in solid minerals and mining, seven in steel and aluminium, four in the sugar sector, 26 in marine transport sector, 19 in power and one in telecoms.
He informed the lawmakers that the Bureau had commenced a thorough review of the non-performing enterprises to ascertain the issues affecting their non- performance.
He listed the new initiatives embarked upon by the Bureau to include; the Afam Power and Yola Distribution Company privatisation, concessioning of the Terminal B of the Warri old Port, restructuring and commercialisation of the Bank of Agriculture (BOA), partial commercialisation of NIPOST, restructuring and commercialisation of the 12 River Basin Development Authorities (RBDAs), reform and commercialisation of three of the nation’s national parks and other initiatives in the power sector.
According to a statement signed and shared by Amina Tukur Othman, BPE Head, Public Communications, chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Privatisation, Ahmed Yerima, at the meeting said that the Committee was at the Bureau to have firsthand information on its activities.
The lawmakers were also visiting the Bureau to ascertain its compliance with the provisions of the 2017 Appropriation Act in line with the resolution of the House that all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) complied with the Act.
Yerima assured that the Committee would use it legislative powers to ensure that BPE’s mandate is not usurped by MDAs; and noted that any attempt in that direction was an infraction on the constitution of the country.
