Federal government hopes to sell or temporarily hand over control of dozens of state-owned businesses in a bid to resuscitate them in 2021 and beyond.

An investors’ guide by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) invites potential investors to take advantage of the opportunities available and incentives offered by the government and buy into those businesses.

“In our collective efforts to create the enabling environment for the private sector to become the centre point for growth and economic prosperity, the Bureau has reformed and privatised over 234 public enterprises and carried out far-reaching reforms that have transformed the Telecommunications, Pension, the Ports Terminals, Debt Management and the Power Sector, among others,” the document said.

For the current year and beyond, the Bureau said it has over 36 transactions and projects, including new reform initiatives for the health, education, and oil & gas sectors.

The document listed the various 2021 definitive projects under the purview of Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) to include the Nigeria Integrated Power Projects (NIPPS); Calabar, Geregu, Omotosho and Benin (IHOVBOR); Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN); Zungeru Hydro Plant; Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST); Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) and the Nigeria Film Corporation (NFC).

Others are the Federal Capital Territory Water Board; Abuja International Conference Centre (AICC); Save sugar company; Lagos international trade fair complex (LTFC); Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS); River Basins Developments Authorities (RBDAS); Bank of Agriculture (BOA) and the Nigeria Commodity Exchange (NCX).

Incentive

As part of its investment incentives in agriculture and agro-allied, transport, aviation, manufacturing, solid minerals and power sectors, the government is offering zero percent import duty on equipment, aircraft, machinery and other related equipment.

The general requirement to access the tariff based incentives include evidence of Corporate Affairs Commission’s registration, tax compliance by means of Tax Identification Number (TIN), certification by relevant ministry, among others.

Meanwhile, Director-General of BPE, Alex Okoh, last week received the report of the federal government’s four inter-agency committees on the resuscitation of the ailing and non-performing privatised enterprises.

In a statement signed by the agency’s Head of Public Communications, Amina Othman, Okoh assured of BPE’s commitment to collaborate with relevant agencies to resuscitate the moribund enterprises.

On March 23, the BPE inaugurated the four committees to help resolve the complexities and challenges hindering the growth and development of some privatised enterprises.

The teams were made up of members drawn from the relevant sectors, ministries, BPE and the private sector.

According to the statement, Okoh disclosed that the government, through the National Council on Privatisation (NCP), had directed the BPE to investigate the causes of the poor performances of moribund enterprises.

“Also to proffer viable and acceptable solutions to resuscitating them to perform optimally, create employment, boost the economy and increase Gross Domestic Product (GDP) among other benefits,” the BPE director-general said.

Okoh assured that the findings of the committees would be shared among all stakeholders in order to spur them to meet their organisational objectives and that of the federal government’s privatisation and reform programme.

PT