Private Firms In Nigeria Now 142

The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) said it has privatised 142 enterprises from inception to date.

Its Director-General, Mr. Alex A. Okoh spoke when he received members of the House of Representatives Committee on Privatisation, led by its Chairman, Alhaji Ahmed Yerima.

The lawmakers were on an oversight visit to the Bureau in Abuja.

Okoh said out of the number, 94 enterprises have been monitored while the rest have been 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 out of the privatised enterprises, 63 per cent of them are doing well while the remaining 37 per cent are not performing. The DG attributed the poor performances of the non-performing enterprises to the operating business environment in the country in which many private or privatised public enterprises have either closed down or relocated to neighbouring countries.

Out of the 142 privatised enterprises, Okoh said 63 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.

Its Head, Public Communications, Amina Tukur Othman who gave the breakdown in a statement by sectors, said five were in the agric machanisation, eight in automobiles, seven in banking and insurance, six in brick making and six in the cement sector.

The others 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 aluminum, four in the sugar sector, 26 in marine transport sector, 19 in power and one in telecoms.