FG nets N1tr from sale of 234 companies – BPE

The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) has said over N1 trillion has been generated from 234 concluded transactions of previously government-owned enterprises.

The BPE Director-General, Mr Alex Okoh, said this on Monday in Abuja at a media conference on the activities of the organisation.

He said the Bureau is also expected to further generate N493.40bn net revenue from various transactions as approved by the National Council on Privatisation (NCP).

According to him, over 30 projects had been categorised under five segments with 22 of them carried over from 2020.

He, however, said that the plan to privatise the nation’s refineries had been dropped as the Federal Government was considering other approaches to revitalise and improve on them.

“We are very close to resolving the issues surrounding the Ajaokuta Steel Company, especially the litigation and that once that was done a decision would be taken on how to proceed with it,” Okoh said.

The Director, Energy Department, BPE, Mr Yunana Malo, said rather than privatising the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), the Bureau would concession it to get maximum value for the country and investors.

He also said that the federal government’s 40 percent stake in the Distribution Companies (DisCos) were still intact and protected by BPE.

“The seemingly weak link is the transmission component, it is still 100 percent owned by the FG. Government is not thinking of privatising, it is thinking of ways and means that the private capital can be brought into the transmission component without giving out the ownership of Transmission Company.”

“The BPE would concession the transmission segment, so that we can have somebody building the high-tension lines, covering areas that have not been reached or to maintain the existing ones to get maximum value, to move from the radial system we have today into a mesh. So, the idea is not to privatise but to reform and make it efficient, bringing in private sector operational modalities within the transmission company.”