The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) disclosed that out of a total of 142 public enterprises that have been sold to private sector operators, 52, representing 37 per cent, are performing poorly,

Speaking when the House of Representatives Committee on Privatisation visited the agency, Director-General, BPE, Mr. Alex Okoh informed the lawmakers that the agency had begun a thorough review of the non-performing enterprises to ascertain the issues affecting them.

He said out of the privatised enterprises, 63 per cent were doing well, while the remaining were performing poorly.

The BPE boss attributed the poor showing of some of the enterprises to the operating business environment in the country as he noted that the harsh environment had forced many private and privatised public enterprises to either close down or relocate to neighbouring countries.

Okoh said out of the 142 privatised enterprises, 94 had been monitored, while the rest had not because some were privatised through either assets sale or in the first phase of privatisation, and as such, did not fall within the BPE’s monitoring purview.

Explaining the process, Okoh said that out of the 142 privatised enterprises, 63 were through core investor sale; nine through guided liquidation; one through sale to existing shareholders; five through public offers; and two through liquidation.

He added that eight were privatised through private placement; 41 through concession; two through debt/equity swap; and 11 through sale of assets.

 

Breaking down the enterprises by sectors, Okoh stated that five were in agricultural mechanisation; eight in automobiles; seven in banking and insurance; six in brick making; and six in the cement sector.

Others, according to the listing, were 10 in energy, construction and services; 12 in hotels and tourism; eight in oil and gas; four in paper and packaging; 19 in solid minerals and mining; seven in steel and aluminium; four in the sugar sector; 26 in marine transport sector; 19 in power; and one in telecoms.

Okoh listed new initiatives embarked upon by the bureau to include the Afam Power Plc privatisation; concession of the Terminal B of the old Warri Port; and restructuring and commercialisation of the Bank of Agriculture.

 

Others are partial commercialisation of the Nigeria Postal Service; restructuring and commercialisation of 12 River Basin Development Authorities; reform and commercialisation of three of the nation’s national parks; and some other initiatives in the power sector.