The government may have decided to sell off its 40 per cent shares in the Distribution Companies (DisCos), NewsSpecng learnt.
Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) Alex Okoh said the divestment will be done through Public Offerings (IPO) at the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
The planned sale of equities is also to generate funds for the Federal Government to part finance the N27.5 trillion 2024 Appropriation Bill.
This is also expected to put an end to the inefficient operation of the electricity distribution chain and ownership crisis in many of the eleven DisCos.
The 40 per cent shares are co-owned by the Federal Government, the states and the local governments.
Explaining the plan and other activities by the BPE for other government-owned agencies, Okoh told reporters that the government’s shares in Eleme Petrochemicals Company Limited (EPCL), Nigeria Re-Insurance, NICON Insurance and Nigeria Machine Tools will also be put up for sale next year.
He said the 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 privatisation programme has recorded significant mileage in the past six months from both foreign and local investors.
He 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) and create an enabling environment for these investments to locate the opportunities locally.
“That in itself is huge because you are placing yourself in the competitive international capital market. There are huge opportunities for your investment now, so that is what is different.
“IPO through the capital market is a very credible strategy for us. Once we are able to resolve a few changes, especially ownership challenges with some Discos, we’ll sell.
“Once we resolve the 40 per cent ownership in the DisCcos, we also plan to take Eleme petrochemicals to the market.
“We have also planned to take the Nigeria Reinsurance and Nicon Insurance to the capital market.
“A lot of entities have been pencilled down for offer in the capital market including the Nigeria Machine Tool in Oshogbo all in next year.”
The BPE boss dismissed the rumours about plans to swap equity in the DisCos with the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) as untrue.
“I am not aware and the government hasn’t told me that there is a plan to swap equity between NDPHC power plants and the DisCos.
“So, it is not really available to be swapped with state shares in the NIPP plants.”
Okoh explained that Labour unions also seek to own shares in the 40 per cent.
He explained further that the original intention of the way the government privatised the DisCos partially was to list the 40 per cent still held by the government in the capital market.
With this, he said the government can democratise the ownership of the assets and make every interested citizen hold a stake in them.
Okoh extolled President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for his persistent search for FDI.
Okoh said although some privatised entities, such as the Steer in Bauchi, Volswagen, Reyland and Rolling Mills, have failed woefully, there are other shining examples of privatisation to boot.
To effectively undertake reforms of public enterprises, and conduct sales and post-privatisation assessment, the Federal Government allocated N2.4 billion expenditure to BPE in the 2024 fiscal budget.
Of the amount, the personnel cost is allocated N1.4 billion, salary and wage N824.8 million; allowance and social contributions will gulp N 575 million while training is allocated N80 million.
