The federal government is to divest from the ten
newly-constructed gas-powered National Integrated Power Projects (NIPPs)
located across the country, the Bureau of Public Enteprises (BPE) on Wednesday
stated.
The medium-sized $7.1 billion gas-fired plants initiated by
the former President Olusegun Obasanjo administration were built through the
Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC), and funded by the three tiers of
government.
The BPE Director General, Mr. Alex Okoh, who dropped the
hint on the planned sale, also disclosed that the reform and privatisation
programme of the federal government has impacted positively on some key sectors
of the Nigerian economy.
Speaking at the Nigerian Investment Showcase at Guildhall,
London, United Kingdom, Okoh listed some of the sectors as telecoms, pension
and seaports.
Okoh, in a statement issued by the BPE, said Nigeria's
telecoms sector, for instance, had achieved almost 100 per cent 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 announced that the federal government would divest from
the ten newly-built ten gas-fired National Integrated Power Projects (NIPPs) on
completion, the statement said.
Reform in the sector, he stated, also brought about over a
million direct and indirect jobs into the Nigerian economy while the
Information, Communication Technology (ICT) sub-sector has witnessed phenomenal
growth.
On pension reforms, Okoh noted that 6.2 million contributors
were registered from 180,586 employers as at October 2012 while 55,904 retirees
currently receive their monthly pensions as and when due with the total value of pension industry assets under
the Contributory Pension Scheme now at over N9 trillion.
He said the seaports now
experience faster ship turn-round, faster cargo turn-round and faster
truck turn-round times even as there is
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, he revealed that BPE is
expected to contribute N220.4 billion to the N8.91 trillion 2019 federal
government budget from its privatisation/commercialisation activities.
The funds are expected to come from some concluded
transactions along with 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 selected National Parks in the country.
So far, over N150 billion privatisation proceeds have gone
into the funding of the 2019 Budget.
Okoh further revealed that from inception to date, the
Bureau has successfully completed 234 public transactions through
privatisation, commercialisation and concessions with some milestones.
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