Nigeria’s minister of finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed says the federal government’s plan to sale its public assets, will benefit citizens as well as help boost the economy.
She said this when she appeared on ChannelsTV’s Sunrise Daily programme monitored by ASHENEWS on Friday.
According to Mrs Ahmed, some government assets were currently moribund and provide no value to Nigerians.
“There are some government assets that are dead that can be sold to the private sector to be reactivated and put to use for the benefit of Nigerians.
“So we are looking at different – and I am a member of the National Council on Privatisation – we are looking at different categories of government assets that government has not been able to manage, that are lying down and in some cases even completely rundown, to cede them off to the private sector,” she said.
According to Ms Ahmed, the “intention is not just funding the budget, it is to reactivate these assets and hand it over and have them bring contributions to the growth in the economy,” adding that the Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, will coordinate with other arms of government on the asset sales in the first quarter of the year.
“In the last week of December, we had a meeting of the National Council on Privatisation where we approved the annual work plan, the 2021 work plan, for that Bureau of Public Enterprises.
“And I guess it is in this first quarter that the BPE will now be engaging the Senate committee and other committees they work with to say this is our work plan for the year,” she said.
