BPE Seeks NSE’s Listing For Privatised Firms

The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) will see through the listing of all privatized enterprises as the final outcome of the Federal Government’s privatization programme.

Director-General of the Bureau, Mr. Alex A. Okoh said the structure of on-going reform and privatisation process envisages that privatized enterprises are listed on the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) as growing business entities that effectively deliver services to Nigerians.

Okoh, who said BPE remains focused in driving the process to achieve the noble mandate of efficiency and sustainable growth of privatized enterprises, pledged the Bureau’s solid collaboration with the capital market towards deepening the market.

“We will collaborate in reviewing what the conditions are and try to make it right for the listings”, he assured.

The Director-General spoke at a meeting with members of the technical committee on attraction of new listings to the capital market in Abuja. The committee is headed by an Executive Director at the NSE, Haruna Jallo Waziri.

In raising concerns about the market’s stability and prospects of getting good value should the privatised entities be listed, Okoh told the committee that, “We will collaborate with you in establishing the conditions that reduces the nerves of the core investors.”

He said there is a window for assessing privatised entities during which period the BPE will appraise the listing conditions and options, even as he enjoined the committee to undertake a holistic approach to their assignment.

Speaking at the meeting, the Committee chairman, Jallo Waziri stated that they have been engaging trade groups, regulators and quasi-regulators as part of efforts to actualize their mandate.

Waziri said apart from creating efficiency, privatisation is a catalyst for economic growth and also induces inclusiveness in the populace.

According to him, privatization increases the velocity of the capital market, adding that there is capacity in the primary market, with huge depth that is yet to be explored and exploited.