Barbara Bako, Abuja.
The Federal Government is set to sell 40 per cent shares in five public enterprises, marking total privatisation of the firms through Initial Public Offer, IPO.
Speaking on the plan to sell government’s 40 per cent stakes to public, Director – General of BPE, Alex Okoh listed the firms as Eleme Petrochemicals Company Limited, EPCL, Nigeria Re- insurance; Nicon Insurance; Discos and the Nigeria Machine Tools in Oshogbo to Nigerians public via Public Offerings ( IPO) at the capital market.
He recalled that BPE had sold 60 percent equity in the five enterprises to core investors, leaving government with 40 per cent balance.
Okoh confirmed to newsmen in Abuja that
privatisation program recorded significant mileages in the past six months from both foreign and local investors.
“The reception of the ideology of privatisation is making more sense and gaining more grounds under the current administration than the previous one. In the past six months you can count the number of trips , visits president has made to seek for Foreign Direct Investments ( FDI) for economy; and to create enabling environment for this investments; to locate the opportunities locally.
“IPO through capital market is a very credible strategy for us. Once we are able to resolve few challenges we are having now especially ownership with some Discos, we plan to take Eleme Petrochemicals to the market. We had also planned to take Nigerian Reinsurance and Nicon Insurance to the capital market. We have started but had some problems with core investors like Jimoh Ibrahim. There are lots of issues involve in taking some of these entities to the market, Nigerian Machine Tools in Oshogbo is also slated for the capital market.”
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“Yes on all front, we expect more active year in 2024 for the BPE , and every step of the way both in terms of educating the public and also helping us to navigate various stake holder concerns “, Mr. Okoh explained.
To effectively undertake reforms of public enterprises, and conduct sales and Post privatisation assessment, federal government allocated N2.4 billion expenditure to BPE in 2024 fiscal budget.
Of the amount the personnel cost is allocated N1.4 billion, salary and wage N8,244.8 million; allowance and social contributions to gulp N 575 Million while training is allocated N80 million.
