Nasarawa Targets N10bn from Privatisation of Enterprises
From Cletus Akwaya in Abuja
The Nasarawa State Government has commenced a comprehensive privatization programme of the state-owned enterprises in which the government hopes to raise between N5 and N10 billion in revenues to finance other development programmes.
And to achieve this the state governor, Alhaji Abdullahi, recently reconstituted the Nasarawa State Committee on Privatisation of Government-owned Companies under the chairmanship of a former Commissioner for Commerce and Industries, Alhjai Umar Said Malami. Malami replaced the erstwhile chairman, Dr. Hassan Lawal, upon his appointment as Minister of Labour and Productivity.
Under the programme, seven companies have been put forward for sale, most of which are new companies built by the present administration during its first term in office. These include Karu International Market locted on the outskirts of Abuja, the nation's capital, Nasarawa Packaging Company, Akwanga, Fertiliser Blending Plant in Lafia, Nasarawa Soap Making Company, Seseme Seed Processing Company, Beef Procesing Company and Lipidary Company, a gemstone polishing enterprise located in Nasarawa.
In order to kick-start the programme, which has been on the drawing board for over a year, the new Chairman,
Malami, hosted an induction course in Abuja August 10, to build capacity for members of the committee, which consists of traditional rulers, religious leaders, bureaucrats and representatives of the private sector.
In an address at the workshop, Adamu said the state government embarked on establishment of new industries so as to actually manage them but because there was no single industry in the state at the time the democratic administration came into being.
The governor who was represented at the workshop by the Secretary to the State Government, Chief Philip Dada, said the government's overall objective was to create employment opportunities for the people of the state. The governor explained, however, that the rationale for the privatization of the companies was to raise the income levels of the people while at the same time involving the people of the state in the management of the enterprises.
"We want to raise money from the sale of these of these companies to replicate economic activities since allocation from the Federation Account is hardly enough," he stated and assured of the state Government's commitment to the programme to enable the committee succeed. The governor stated that his administration has provided an office accommodation to the committee in Karu, near Abuja, to ease its contacts with prospective investors and other stakeholders in the exercise.
At the induction ceremony, Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises(BPE), Dr. Julius Bala, insisted that privatization was the best option to deal with the problem of low performance of public enterprises.
Represented by a Deputy Director, Dr. Paul Indogenie, Bala outlined the various options in a privatisation arrangement including auction, direct sale, stock offering, liquidation, employee or management buy-out, public distribution of shares, marketisation or de-monopolisation, public service contracting, public-private partnership and transferring services to private and non-governmental organisations. Malami, in an interview with THISDAY, said his appointment was a challenge. He therefore pledged to do everything within his powers to make the exercise succeed. He said the committee's assignment at the moment was to set the regulation in place, hinting that a draft bill would soon be sent to the state House of Assembly for an enabling law to back the programme. Although transaction details such as time-frame for the programme, the mode of privatisation to be adopted and other related technical issues like capacity building or appointment of consultants were yet to be addressed, Malami said the committee would soon begin a tour of all the enterprises slated for privatisation with a view to ascertaining their state of being ahead of a technical expert valuers. Nasarawa's initiative on privatisation becomes the first by any state government in the North to reform its non-performing government-owned companies.
Other states like Kano, Kaduna, Plateau, Benue and, to some extent, Borno, have a number of state-owned companies which have of recent become drain pipes for the public treasury of the states. Industry experts believe that Nasarawa's upcoming privatisation exercise will be a huge success as the companies being put on sale are not only new but the plants have also never been operated. The implication is that potential buyers would be taking over completely new systems they can manage for sometime before depreciation sets in. Malami in buttressing this viewpoint said a company like the fertiliser blending plant was one whose products(ferstlisers) would not even meet the local demand even if it were to operate in full capacity.
Against this backdrop, he said, prospective investors were assured of a fair deal in the state's privatisation programme.
|
