By: Timothy Choji, Abuja
The Chairman of the National Council on Privatization (NCP), Vice President Kashim Shettima, has demanded a fundamental shift in Nigeria’s privatization agenda, urging a move from simply selling state-owned enterprises to asset optimization designed to power the nation’s trillion-dollar economy ambition.
He made the call during a meeting of the council at the presidential villa, Abuja.
The Vice President said this new direction is a critical necessity, calling for discipline and vision to guide the country away from the pitfalls of inefficiency.
He maintained that the NCP must serve as the economic compass guiding the nation’s investments and policy choices, stressing that without urgent action, economic projections would remain theoretical.
“Our aspiration to build a trillion-dollar economy is a destination that demands discipline, vision, and absolute adherence to the compass produced by this Council. Without such a compass, our economic projections would amount to nothing more than an exercise in theory formation,” VP Shettima said.
National Wealth
The Vice President proposed a future where the NCP would focus on unlocking the value of Nigeria’s latent assets, which he described as an immense reservoir of national wealth. This includes underutilized land, dormant real estate, and untapped intellectual property.
“The necessity of this Council has never been in doubt. We replace bureaucratic bottlenecks with commercial agility, relieve government of the costly burden of subsidising inefficient state-owned enterprises, and attract vital investment,” he said.
To achieve this optimization, VP Shettima directed the Council to immediately explore modern models like long-term concessions, asset-backed securitization, and core investor sales tied to strict performance benchmarks.
Warning
He also issued a stern warning on transaction integrity, demanding zero tolerance for ambiguities to avoid costly litigation and to send a “powerful signal of stability and seriousness to the international investment community.”
Meanwhile, the NCP has approved the request by the Bureau of Public Enterprise to follow through on the engagement with Transcorp Power Consortium to secure execution of the Performance Agreements on the sale of Afam Power Plc and Afam III Fast Power Limited.
The target is to regularize outstanding conditions and operational targets for the post-acquisition plan and ensure the commercial viability of the plant.
The approval for the execution of the Performance Agreements on the sale of the two enterprises followed a memo presented to the NCP by the Director General of BPE, Ayodeji Gbeleyi, at its third meeting held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He said the Federal Government completed the sale process of the Afam Power plant, with an outstanding N53.9 billion collected as privatization proceeds.
The DG said while the asset has been fully handed to the core investor, Transcorp Power Consortium, the government also restructured its transaction this year.
After the sale, which was finalised in November 2020, the Nigerian Government needed to execute the Performance Agreements, a standard part of the post-acquisition process in Nigeria’s power sector privatization, outlining the investor’s commitment to specific performance targets, such as increasing the plant’s operational capacity within a given timeframe.
Gbeleyi noted that with the execution of the Performance Agreements to regularize the transactions, the BPE can now commence the mandatory post-privatization monitoring of the core investor’s performance obligations.
The DG said Council also deliberated extensively on its performance and that of the BPE in the year 2025, in terms of what was accomplished, including the unbundling of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).
“As you heard at the meeting, the unbundling of the Transmission Company of Nigeria into two entities, the Nigerian Independent System Operator, as well as the Transmission Service Provider, was achieved in the course of this year.
“Before the approval, Chairman of the NCP, Vice President Shettima, who demanded a fundamental shift in Nigeria’s privatization agenda, said there is a need to shift from simply selling state-owned enterprises to asset optimization designed to power the nation’s trillion-dollar economy ambition,” he explained.
The Minister of Finance, Mr. Wale Edun, commended the BPE team, highlighting the need for its sustained commitment to quality and best practices.
Others who made contributions at the council meeting included Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu; Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Atiku Bagudu; Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, and Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Olayemi Cardoso.
Olusola Akintonde