Leadership (Abuja)
29 September 2008
opinion
The privatisation programme has been the Federal Government's brilliant way of cutting losses from its misadventure into the business terrain.
No one could really understand the magnitude of losses in the failed enterprises until the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) reeled out the actual figures recently. Statistics from the BPE show that, between 1975 and 1995, the Federal Government invested about N11.5 trillion in 146 public companies privatised by the agency in the last eight years. The companies were sold at a paltry N587 billion. BPE spent N150 billion settling the unpaid salaries of workers of the ailing firms before privatisation.
In fact, when the huge cost of privatisation is factored in, it is doubtful if the Federal Government actually realised up to N200 billion from the sale of the enterprises. The firms were run aground by gross mismanagement and endemic corruption. What was left of each was given out to friends of top politicians at half its market value, all in the name of privatisation.
The lesson from this is that government should not be in business. Our ailing refineries should be sold in a more transparent bidding.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Leadership. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
