Director General Bureau of Public Enterprises Mr Alex Okoh has said in a webinar organised by the Nigerian Exchange Group and the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission that the agency plans to concession free trade zones in the country from where it hopes to generate N5 billion. The Bureau of Public Enterprises said that the Federal Government plans to concession 36 state-owned assets, saying that as much as N5 billion would be earned annually from the concession of Calabar and Kano Free Trade Zones.
The BPE boss said that the planned concession would increase export earnings from the Calabar and Kano FTZ, to $3 billion over a period of five to seven years stating that it would also generate annual savings of about N5 billion into the federal treasury. He further said that 36 projects have been listed for concession by the BPE across major sectors including Nigeria’s power sector, citing that the sale and concession of some power assets would add 3,300 megawatts to the national grid.
Okoh said “The importance of power as an enabler for economy and industrial activities across all sectors of the economy continues to attract strong focus and attention of the Federal Government. In the health sector, the reforms being undertaken by the bureau will involve the implementation of initiatives which will radically transform health care delivery across Nigeria. This will improve availability, accessibility, affordability and quality of health care services with the ultimate objective of having a physically and an emotionally healthy population. The impact of this is to unlock significant resources for the government to invest in other critical infrastructure as well as other key sectors of the economy creating job opportunities in the process,” he said. He added that the FG is committed to boosting PPP engagement in the country to generate the confidence required to attract private sector capital into the nation’s infrastructure space.
Amaechi Aloke, Director of Infrastructure and Public Private Partnership at BPE said that the BPE is collaborating with the World Bank to develop about 100 projects to make them attractive to private investors. The NIPP projects being considered for sale are: Geregu Generation Company Ltd installed capacity at ISO condition of 506 Megawatts (MW); Benin (Ihovbor) Generation Company Ltd with 507 MW; Calabar Generation Ltd with 634MW; Omotosho Generation Ltd with 513MW; and Olorunsogo Generation Company Ltd with 754MW.