Govt hands over PHCN to new investors Sept 21- BPE

The Federal Government will hand over privatized successor companies of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, to private investors on September 21, 2013, if the investors pay on schedule.

The Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (PBE) Mr. Benjamin Dikki, disclosed this in an interview in Abuja.

He disclosed that the PHCN privatization was expected to earn the Federal Government about $2 billion.

Dikki said: 'To purchase this Power Holding Company, over $2 billion will be paid by the bidders, and that is because the investors can see a clear investment horizon. They don't have to go and lobby anybody, all they require is to meet the technical requirement, go to the regulatory authority, apply for licence and they are limited by their own ingenuity and their access to the capital.

'When they pay by September 21, we will hand over the companies to them or anybody who pays earlier and then they begin to operate.

'Labour issues have been resolved and the implementation committee on settlement of the PHCN staff terminal benefits commenced payment of N118 billion to the over 20,000 PHCN staff, at the beginning of this month'.

The BPE boss said the privatization programme of the Federal Government had significantly opened up the Nigerian economy by creating the right atmosphere for greater private sector participation in several key sectors.

He said the telecommunications sector stood out in terms of attracting massive foreign investment, which he put at about $40 billion to date.

His words: 'The Nigerian economy is becoming more and more liberalised. So, we in the Bureau of Public Entreprise are not surprised. That is what we have been working for.

'That is the benefit of the reform, which the Bureau of Public Entreprise has been spearheading and also in consonance with the transformation agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan's administration'.

'What this transformation agenda is doing is to create an enabling environment for the private sector investment in the country and that has given rise to reform activities in various sectors.'