Why Buhari’s Govt May Sell TBS, All Hyro Power Plants, Other Assets

The Federal Government of Nigeria has revealed plans to sell some of the state-owned assets.

This comes on the heels of the President’s appropriation budget bill of N20.51 trillion for the year 2023 presented some weeks back. The Eagle had observed and reported that this was Nigeria’s yet highest budget allocation in its history.

A breakdown of the budget shows that N744.11 billion was earmarked for statutory transfers, N8.27 trillion for non-debt recurrent costs, N1.1 trillion for overhead costs, and N5.35 trillion for capital expenditure.

In continuation, the president stated that “We expect the total fiscal operations of the federal government to result in a deficit of N10.78 trillion.”

To cover the N10.7 trillion budget shortfall in 2023, FG is drafting a list of assets that will either be sold or “concessioned.”

Punch reports, that the government was considering selling or concessioning the Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos as well as all the National Integrated Power Projects in Olorunsogo, Calabar II, Benin (located at Ihorbor), Omotosho II and Geregu II plants.

Also, the government intends to sell or concession all of the hydroelectric power plants in the nation, including the Oyan, Lower Usuma, Katsina-Ala, and Giri projects.

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The government also plans to profit from the free zones in Calabar and Kano, the Abuja Water Board, the Nigerian Aluminium Smelter Company, the National Film Corporation, the National Theatre, and the Lagos International Trade Fair.

The government is also planning to relinquish the ownership of some of the basin authorities and hand them over to the private sector to manage.

However, sources said they could either be sold or concessioned – depending on the preference of the core investors.

Some of the government ministries such as the postal service will be concessioned or entirely sold to the private sector to enable them to compete effectively with other privately- managed logistics firms.