The Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) Mr. Alex A. Okoh, on Sunday confirmed that the privatization agency had so far generated N135 billion out of the N220 billion set for it as revenue target for 2019 fiscal year.
Okoh, who disclosed this during an interactive forum with the Senate Committee on Privatisation at the National Assembly, said that that the N220 billion expected to be generated by the Bureau this year was set in the Medium-Term Framework submitted by the Federal Government to the National Assembly for 2019 budget.
Specifically, the privatization expert pointed out that the N135 billion was generated through the sale of the Afam Electricity Generation Company (Afam Power Plc and Afam Three Fast Power Limited),re-privatisation of the Yola Electricity Distribution Company (YEDC) and sale of 29 percent Federal Government’s shares in the Geregu Power plant.
Okoh, while calling on the National Assembly to critically look at the funding framework for the Bureau, expressed optimism that the agency would meet its target for the 2020 fiscal budget.
He however bemoaned the low budgetary allocation to the BPE on yearly basis, pointing out that out of the N2 billion allocated to the Bureau in this year’s budget for its operations, N1.5 billion is for staff emoluments.
Okoh explained further that out of the N500m that is supposed to come to the Bureau for overheads and capital expenditure, only about 15 percent of the amount had been released to the Bureau so far as against what obtained obtained in other revenue generating agencies of the government which usually enjoy better funding.
He therefore urged government to give consideration to the privatisation of federal government-owned enterprises to fund the N10.33 trillion 2020 budget, with a total deficit of N2.28 trillion and decried a situation where the state-owned enterprises place an undue pressure on the lean public purse by way of subventions.
Okoh noted that there was no justification for perennial deficit financing of yearly budgets through local and external borrowings when there were national assets that could be converted into liquidity to fund the government’s fiscal programmes.
He expatiated: “It is not good to keep borrowing on a yearly basis to finance deficit budget when a lot of very valuable national assets are lying fallow and moribund.
“Proceeds from outright privatisation or concession of the moribund assets, should serve as veritable sources in funding the budget since the assets are more or less, becoming national liabilities”, the Director General added.
Earlier in his remarks, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Privatisation,Chief Theodore Orji, reiterated the importance of privatization programme as crucial to the sustainable growth of the nation’s economy and pledged the support of the Committee to the Bureau’s operations.
