Federal Government has grossed over N669 billion from privatising public enterprises since 1999 till date.
Speaking while delivering a lecture on the Federal Government’s privatisation and Economic Reform Programme at the Annual Lecture of  “Just Friends Club of Nigeria’’ in Abuja, Director-General, Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Mr. Benjamin Dikki, said this amount was from the 122 enterprises it had privatised from 1999 to 2012, as well as the money so far generated from the privatisation of the power sector in 2013.
“The sum of N251.5 billion was realised as gross proceeds and over N147 billion net profit was remitted to the Privatisation Proceeds Account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). 66 per cent of the privatised enterprises are performing well as against 34 per cent that are not doing well. The preferred bidders for 15 out of the 18 successor companies of PHCN have paid their full bid prices amounting to approximately $2.5 billion (N417.5 billion).
Meanwhile, N384 billion was used in settling labour liabilities in the sector before the companies were handed over to the new core investors on November 1, 2013,’’ he said.
According to him, the process of unbundling the Kaduna Electricity Distribution and Afam Generation Companies, which were unsuccessful during the first sale were now nearing completion.
The Director-General said that although the bureau was known mostly for its privatisation activities, it has, however, embarked on so many notable reforms in different sectors of the economy.
He cited the reform in the telecommunication sector, which has created thousands of jobs, with over 123 million telephone lines and generated lots of money to the coffers of the government and the public.
“With the establishment of Pension Commission (PenCom) and entrenchment of a stable pension policy in Nigeria, retirees are now guaranteed payment on retirement. The establishment of Debt Management Office (DMO) was one of the outcomes of the reform works of the bureau. Before its creation, there was nobody to monitor government borrowing,’’ he said.
Dikki also remarked that at the moment, the bureau was initiating the passage of seven critical bills, which would open up the Nigerian economy for healthy businesses to strive.

FG earns over N669bn from privatising public enterprises, says BPE