Acting President Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday inaugurated the National Council on Privatisation (NCP), the body responsible for making decisions on the sale and liberalisation of government’s interests in national assets and companies.
Head of public communications of Bureau of Public and Enterprises, BPE, Chukwuma Nwokoh, in a statement on Thursday said Osinbajo described the inauguration of the NCP as a critical step in achieving the socio-economic agenda of the current administration.
“It is also a demonstration of our administration’s commitment to public sector reform and the central role of the national council on privatisation (NCP) in this process,” Osinbajo said.
“Even though the public sector has been at the centre stage in the provision of critical infrastructure and services cutting across the whole spectrum of the nation’s life since independence, the emerging importance and centrality of the private sector to the actualisation of the economic agenda of the administration cannot be down played.
“In return, the government expects the NCP to come up with creative out-of-the box solutions for addressing the numerous challenges facing the privatisation and commercialisation programme such as non-performance by some privatised enterprises and post-privatisation challenges facing some of the privatised enterprises.
“The government also expects the NCP to make measurable progress in respect of the outstanding transactions affecting some of the areas critical to the economic recovery of the nation. You must make deliberate and conscious efforts to learn from past experiences and guard against avoidable mistakes of the past”, he added.
He said although there were numerous challenges trailing the process and that the NCP would come up with solutions would make power available to Nigerians.
“A mega reform process in the power sector is ongoing with ambitious expectations. Although, there are numerous challenges trailing the process, the NCP is expected to critically analyse these challenges and come up with sustainable solutions as part of government commitment to make power available at accelerated rates and to wide sections of the populace,” he said.
Alex Okoh, director-general of BPE, said the bureau would do what was required of it as it pursued its mandate of reforming public enterprises.
“We believe that regulatory agencies and commissions should manage regulatory compliance and not get involved in process as transactions managers or operators as this will clearly create confusion and possible conflict,” Okoh said.
Those in the new and fifth NCP are Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, as Vice Chairman; the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mallam Abubakar Malami; the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Okechukwu Enelamah; and Minister of National Planning, Senator Udo Udoma.
Others included the acting Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Hajia Habibat Lawal; Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele; Special Adviser to the President on Economic Matters, Dr. Adeyemi Dipeolu; Mr. Ituah Ighodalo; Mr. Ghandi Olaoye; Senator A.A. Ibrahim; Dr. Bashir Gwandu; and Director General of BPE, Mr. Alex Okoh, who is also the Secretary of the body chaired by Osinbajo.
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