VAM News Update
THE Federal Government has said it would offload its 40 per cent stake in some key public utilities and companies to fund part of the 2024 budget.
Director General of Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Mr. Alex Okoh, stated this during a media chat in Abuja, yesterday.
The public utility firms and companies where the 40 per cent shares of the Federal Government are domiciled are; Eleme Petrochemicals Company Limited (EPCL), Nigeria Re-Insurance, Nicon Insurance, DisCos and the Nigeria Machine Tools in Osogbo.
Okoh explained that the 40 stake in these companies would be sold to Nigerians through Initial Public Offerings ( IPO) at the capital market.
The BPE had earlier sold 60 per cent of the Federal Government equity in five enterprises to core investors, leaving the government with just 40 per cent.
Okoh said the privatisation programme 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 and visits the President has made to seek Foreign Direct Investments ( FDI)into the economy; and create an enabling environment for these investments; to locate the opportunities locally.
That itself is huge because you are placing yourself in the competitive international capital market or investment market that listen, look at us as well. There are huge opportunities for your investment now, so that is what is different”, he said.
Speaking on BPE’s plan to sell Government’s 40 per cent stake to the public, Okoh said it will happen in 2024.
“IPO through the capital market is a very credible strategy for us. Once we are able to resolve a few challenges we are having now, especially ownership challenges with some DisCos, we resolve to sell…”
We had also planned to take Nigerian Reinsurance insurance to the market, Nicon insurance to the capital market. Of course, we started but had some problems with the core investor, Jimoh Ibrahim. So, there are lots of issues involved in taking some of these entities to the market.
Nigerian Machine Tools, Oshogbo is also slated for the capital market. Yes on all fronts, we expect a 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 stakeholder concerns “, Okoh said.