Abuja — The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) yesterday revealed that about N1trillion in revenues was remitted to the government as proceeds from the sale of 132 public enterprises.

This was made known by the Director General of the Bureau, Dr. Chris Anyanwu, while speaking in Abuja at the 2-day stakeholders' workshop on the Privatisation Support Project (PSP) of the World Bank.

According to the DG BPE; "From the inception of the PSP in September 2001 and with the support of DFID, 132 public enterprises have been privatised in Nigeria to date, grossing almost a trillion naira in revenue". He observed that between 1989 and 1994, 55 public enterprises were privatised by means of Initial Public Offer (IPO), adding that privatisation was however, suspended in 1994 but resumed in 1999.

"From 1999 to August, 2001, 17 public enterprises were privatised with the assistance of USAID and the Spanish government", he further said.

Stressing the invaluable contribution of the World Bank through PSP, he acknowledged that BPE was not the only beneficiary of the World Bank's PSP in Nigeria. However, he said, the World Bank's collaboration with the BPE was the most visible of her PSP programs in Nigeria.

"This is because privatisation, as we know, is a radical experiment in public policy motivated by the conviction of the enormous benefits of free market mechanism and its impact is felt in all spheres of the economy", he argued.

Anyanwu also said, "We are happy to testify that the World Bank, through the PSP, has been of incalculable assistance to the privatisation and commercialisation programme in Nigeria".

Furthermore, he listed the objectives of the PSP in Nigeria, including, to restructure and rationalise the public sector in order to reduce the dominance of unproductive investments in the sector.

Other objectives include; to raise funds for financing socio-economic development in such areas as health, education and infrastructure; ensure positive returns in public sector investment in commercialis-ed enterprises, through more efficient management; initiate the process of gradual transfer to the private sector of public enterprise which are better operated by the private sector and create more jobs, acquire new knowledge and technology and expose the country to international competition.