Only Moribund Govt’s Assets Will Be Sold To Finance N13trn Budget—Finance Minister

The Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, on Friday, said the Federal Government will only sell assets that have been moribund for a long time.

She also said that contrary to claims in some quarters, the planned sale of public assets will benefit Nigerians and help to boost the economy.

In an appearance on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, Ahmed, who is also the Minister of Budget and National Planning, said some government assets are currently moribund and provide little or no value to Nigerians in their current state.

She said, “There are some government assets that are dead that can be sold to the private sector to be reactivated and put to use for the benefit of Nigerians.

“I am a member of the National Council on Privatisation, we are looking at different categories of government assets that government has not been able to manage, that are lying down and in some cases even completely rundown, to cede them off to the private sector.”

The Minister had on January 12 during the public presentation of the 2021 approved budget revealed the government’s plan to sell public assets to partly finance the N13.58trn 2021 budget.

But Ahmed said that the intention is not just funding the budget, but to reactivate these assets and hand it over to investors that would bring contributions to the growth in the economy.

She added that the Bureau of Public Enterprises will begin to coordinate with other arms of government on the asset sales in the first quarter of this year.

“In the last week of December, we had a meeting of the National Council on Privatisation where we approved the annual work plan, the 2021 work plan, for that Bureau of Public Enterprises.

“And I guess it is in this first quarter that the BPE will now be engaging the Senate committee and other committees they work with to say this is our work plan for the year,” she added.

In a statement on Sunday, SERAP had asked the National Assembly to stop the Federal Government from selling public assets to fund the 2021 budget.

The group said the government should, instead, look to identify areas in the budget to cut, such as salaries and allowances for public officials.

In a letter dated 16 January 2021, and signed by SERAP Deputy Director Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation said: “The National Assembly has a constitutional and oversight responsibility to protect valuable public properties and to ensure a responsible budget spending.

“Allowing the government to sell public properties, and to enjoy almost absolute discretion to borrow to fund the 2021 budget would amount to a fundamental breach of constitutional and fiduciary duties.

“Selling valuable public properties to fund the 2021 budget would be counter-productive, as this would be vulnerable to corruption and mismanagement.

“It would undermine the social contract with Nigerians, leave the government worse off, and hurt the country in the long run. It is neither necessary nor in the public interest.”