Nigerian govt to sell a 40% stake in Eleme petrochemicals, DisCos – BPE

The Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, is to raise money for the Federal Government to partially finance the 2024 budget by selling government’s stake in Eleme Petrochemicals Company Limited (EPCL), Electricity Distribution Companies, and two other public enterprises.

The agency stressed that it has also wrapped up plans to offload government’s 40 per cent stake in Nigeria Reinsurance, Nicon Insurance, and Nigeria Machine Tools in Osogbo, via Initial Public Offerings, IPO, at the capital market.

The Director-General of BPE, Alex Okoh, unveiled the plan at a media chat in Abuja on Tuesday.

DAILY POST recalls that BPE had sold 60 per cent of equity in the five enterprises to core investors, leaving the government with a 40 per cent balance.

Okoh said: “The reception of the ideology of privatisation is making more sense and gaining more ground under the current administration than the previous one.

“In the past six months, you can count the number of trips and visits the president has made to seek Foreign Direct Investments, FDI, for the economy and create an enabling environment for these investments to locate the opportunities locally.

Continuing, he said: “IPO through the capital market is a very credible strategy for us. Once we can resolve a few changes we are having now, especially ownership challenges with some discos, we resolve to sell. So the capital market, yes, once we resolve the 40 per cent ownership in the discos, once we are done with the discos, we also plan to take Eleme petrochemicals to the market; we had also planned to take Nigerian Reinsurance to the market and Nicon Insurance to the capital market. Of course, we started but had problems with a core investor, Jimoh Ibrahim. So, many issues are involved in taking some of these entities to the market. Nigeria Machine Tools, Oshogbo, is also slated for the capital market.”

He added: “On all fronts, we expect a more active year in 2024 for the BPE, and every step of the way, both in terms of educating the public and also helping us to navigate various stakeholder concerns.”

Reacting to the development, Wumi Iledare, Professor Emeritus and Executive Director of the Emmanuel Egbogah Foundation, lauded the idea but urged that the process not be driven solely based on political expediency.

“Great idea, but the disposition of government assets must not be driven solely based on political expediency. Technical and financial competence in a transparent, competitive, and accountable manner must be evident,” he said.