Delivering a lecture on “Accountability in Governance and National Development” to Course 23 of the National Defence College (NDC),Abuja, recently, the Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Mr. Benjamin Dikki, noted that the deregulation of the telecoms sector and the participation of private GSM operators like MTN, Glo, Airtel, Etisalat, Visafone, etc. has resulted in over 123 million active telephone lines available in Nigeria compared to 450,000 lines before the reform.
Also, he said the sector now employs over one million Nigerians and has attracted over $40 billion in investments.
Dikki pointed out the critical role which the BPE played in enthroning accountability and good governance in Nigeria to include formation of PenCom, which ensured accountability of staff pension deductions. He said the sector has accumulated over N4 trillion in stable deposits for development investment; formation of the Debt Management Office (DMO), which resulted in the continued determination of Nigeria’s total external borrowings and made a concrete case for debt cancellation and rescheduling as well as formation of the EFCC that has increased accountability and assisted in reducing theft of government funds now freed for development and the conviction of many corrupt officials.
Other gains, he said, were the unbundling of PHCN into 18 successor companies and the successful privatisation of the power sector. “This has taken the power sector out of government budget and now we can calculate the revenue shortfalls in the power market,” he stated.
“The concession of the various seaports has taken them off government budget and the private sector has made massive investments that government could not have contemplated. Today, the quantum of cargo has increased tremendously due to the comparative improvement in processing time,” he added.
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Investments in telecoms rise to $40bn, says BPE |
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