Nigeria Eyes $1.3bn from Asset Sales This Year

• Buhari appoints Shonubi new CBN Deputy Governor-Designate

By Omololu Ogunmade in Abuja

Nigeria expects to raise about N400 billion ($1.3 bn) via asset sales this year, part of which would help finance its record 2018 budget.

The Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Alex Okoh, who disclosed this to Reuters, added that the government had a list of 11 assets it plans this year, either to sell to strategic investors or offer to private companies to lease and run on concession, ranging from power assets to sports stadiums.

Sources have also said the government planned to sell part of its stake in Nigerian Reinsurance Company through an IPO in November.

The BPE DG added that the federal government had finalised plans to start a post-privatisation programme for its power sector with a $1 billion credit from the World Bank to boost power distribution and transmission which has underperformed.

In 2013, Nigeria, which is plagued by blackouts, started selling parts of its moribund state electricity firm in a privatisation that was meant to improve power supplies and attract billions of dollars in new investments – neither of which happened.

Okoh said the power sector was among 37 per cent of privatised enterprises that had underperformed, without providing a figure on how many assets have been sold.

He added that the country had attracted $7.8 billion in foreign investment into 53 privatised entities.

President Muhammadu Buhari is yet to sign the 2018 spending plan into law. Parliament approved a budget of N9.12 trillion, higher than the N8.61 trillion the government presented to lawmakers in November, after delays.

Budgets under Buhari, who took office in May 2015, have been Nigeria’s largest ever. However, the country has struggled to fund its expenditure as oil prices dwindled from 2014, tipping Nigeria into a recession, which it exited last year.

Buhari appoints Shonubi New CBN Deputy Governor-Designate

President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday in Abuja appointed Mr. Folashodun Adebisi Shonubi as a Deputy Governor-designate for the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Announcing the appointment in a statement, Malam Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, said Shonubi’s appointment would be subject to Senate confirmation.
According to him, the nominee is the current Managing Director of the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS) which he described as the financial payments, facilitation and settlement platform that is instrumental to the growth in electronic payments in the Nigerian financial industry.

The statement added that before assuming the headship of NIBBS in 2012, Shonubi had garnered decades of executive-level experience in financial service operations especially as the Executive Director at the Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, Renaissance Securities Nigeria Ltd. and Ecobank Nigeria Plc.