BPE sets up c’ttee to review performance of privatised enterprises

The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) has inaugurated four committees to evolve a mechanism for addressing the complexities and challenges hindering the growth and development of some privatized enterprises in the country which were handed over to the core investors over 10 years ago.

This is to ensure that the privatized enterprises yield the desired dividends to the citizenry in line with the privatization policy of the Federal Government.

Also, the committees are saddled with the task of providing policymakers with further insight into practical realities facing the sectors in which the enterprises were privatized and proffer credible solutions to addressing the problems.

A statement issued Thursday in Abuja by the Head, Public Communications, BPE, Amina Tukur Othman said the committees: that of Housing Sector (the Bricks and Clay), Mines and Steel Development, Oil Palm and Automobiles, as the fifth committee on Paper Mills had earlier been inaugurated.

Inaugurating the committees in Abuja on Thursday, Director General, Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Mr. Alex A. Okoh recalled that the National Council on Privatization (NCP) at its meeting of April 12, 2018, reviewed the performances of some privatized enterprises in the past 10 years and observed that they occupied a strategic place in the nation’s economy but have remained sub-optimal since privatization.

Okoh said the NCP also took into cognizance, the need to resuscitate and reposition the enterprises in order to enhance their market value and their overall contribution to the economy.

Consequently, he said, the NCP directed its secretariat the (BPE) to organise an Enterprise Stakeholders/Investors Forum with the objective of creating a platform where the Core Investors of the privatized enterprises, potential investors and relevant MDAs would meet and chart a way forward for their resuscitation through partnership between the private and public sectors.

He added that the objective is in consonance with the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (2017) of the Federal Government.

The Director-General noted that it has been the custom in BPE to engage stakeholders in its programme design and execution in order to solicit their cooperation, support and participation to the success of the privatization programme and the Nigeria economy.

Okoh implored members of the committees to work assiduously and submit their report within 90 working days’ timeline.

Membership of the Committees is drawn from the relevant sectors, ministries, the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and the private sector.