Bureau of Public Enterprises Unveils FG Plans to Sell 40% Stake in Discos

The Bureau of Public Enterprises has announced plans to sell the remaining 40% of the government's shares in electricity distribution companies on the capital market in 2024.

It reveals that the Bureau of Public Enterprises stated it may also take four other assets to the market next year. The director-general of BPE, Mr Alex Okoh, disclosed this plan during a media chat in Abuja on Tuesday.

The other assets include Nigeria Re-Insurance, Eleme Petrochemicals Company Limited, Nicon Insurance, and Nigeria Machine Tools in Osogbo.

It was reported that the BPE had sold 60% of the Federal Governprivatizing in five enterprises to core investors, leaving the government with just 40%.

Mr Okoh said that the primary purpose of the government privatizing a part of Discos was to list its 40% on the stock market to democratize its ownership to more Nigerians, not just a core group of investors.

He said,

• One of the original intentions of the partial privatization of the Discos was to list the 40% that the government still holds in the stock market. And in that way, you are democratizing the ownership of these government entities.

He added that the plans of the FG to privatize were to enable Nigerians to buy shares in the Discos, adding that the government was working on this.

He added, 

• So, the capital market, yes, once we resolve the 40% ownership in the Discos. We also plan to take Eleme Petrochemicals to the capital market. We had also planned to take Nigerian Re-Insurance and Nicon Insurance to the capital market. Still, we started needing help with the former core investor, Jimoh Ibrahim.

• So, there are a lot of issues that are involved in taking some of these entities to the market. The Nigerian Machine Tools in Oshogbo is also slated for the capital market.

• Yes, on all fronts, we expect a more active year in 2024 for the BPE, and every step of the way, in terms of educating the public and helping us navigate various stakeholder concerns, we will have to work with the media.

Okoh said that the Tinubu-led administration is open to privatization, which is believed to produce results. He also said that the FG plans to generate N298.4 billion from the privatization of government assets in 2014.

In that regard, the DG of the Bureau of Public Enterprises also denied knowledge of plans by the government to swap some of the shares of power distribution companies with state governments, as reported in a section of the media recently.

• I am not aware, and the government hasn’t told me that there is a plan to swap equity between NDPHC (Niger Delta Power Holding Company) power plants and the Discos. Don’t forget that even the 40% residual as government interest in those Discos is not entirely owned by the Federal Government.

• You have the Federal Government and the states owning part of it, and the labour unions are also contending to have some of that 40%. So it is not available to be swapped with states’ shares in the NIPP plants, no! That is not what I understand.