FROM COBHAM NSA, ABUJA – The Federal Government’s power sector privatization has failed to achieve its goals of building efficiency, employment generation and wealth creation in the country.
Chairman of Senate Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation, Senator Ben Murray-Bruce said privatisation should not only be a welcome intervention but should ordinarily create jobs for the teeming unemployed Nigerians
Speaking during the Committee’s oversight visit to the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) in Abuja, Senator Murray-Bruce stated that the exercise should also create wealth and build efficiencies within the polity.
This is even as the Bureau admits that paucity of funds remains a major setback in the drive to attain some of its set objectives.
The Senator Committee’s chairman however stated that efforts at addressing the power sector challenges must be such that foreign investors are not scared away from the country.
He said though the Committee has a mandate to hold public hearing on the power sector, “We are mindful of foreign investors and we are wary of scaring away foreign investors.”
Acknowledging the need to work hard on fixing the sector as part of efforts to grow the country’s economy, the Bayelsa Senator lamented that the current cash-strapped position of BPE remains a huge challenge in the task of fixing the sector, adding; “We need to fund you so that you can do your work.”
Senator Murray-Bruce lauded the cordial relationship between the Bureau and the Senate Committee, assuring that it would be built upon to productively drive the privatization exercise.
In his comments, the Director General of BPE, Mr Alex A. Okoh, said the Bureau has commenced a thorough review of the non-performing enterprises to ascertain the issues affecting their performances.
He said current initiatives are meant to positively impact the economy in areas of power generation and supply; improvement in overall infrastructure; employment creation; food security and human capital development leading to overall economic growth.
Mr Okoh assured that the Bureau will not renege in assisting to restructure public sector enterprises and services for new synergy between a leaner and more efficient government and a revitalized, efficient and service oriented private sector.
On the paucity of funds currently hampering the attainment of its goals, the BPE boss said; “the treasury of the Federal Government is becoming leaner in view of competing demands and dwindling government revenues.”
He expressed regrets at the lack of credible partnership with donor agencies, noting that; “This is very key to successful closure of transactions, as witnessed during the early days of the privatisation and commercialisation program between 1999 and 2003”.
According to a statement by the BPE’s Head of Public Communications, Chukwuma Nwokoh on the Senate team were the Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Privatisation, Senator Abdullahi Yahaya and Senator Shaaba Lafiaji, a member of the Committee.
