Benjamin Dikki, director-general of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), has reiterated that privatization remains the best option to develop the Nigerian economy and ensure efficiency in service delivery.
Speaking on the maiden edition of Reforms in Nigeria on Aso Radio, the DG said that the federal government decided to embrace the programme to avoid waste and encourage competition in the economy.
He noted that prior to the introduction of the Commercialization and Privatisation programme in the country; government-owned enterprises were run at a loss, inefficient and a drain on the government.
”Take the days of NITEL for instance, only few telephone lines were available in the country and even at that, telephone users had to queue endlessly at phone booths to make calls which often times their calls never went through”, he stressed.
Dikki however said that with the liberalization of the telecoms sector, there is a boost in telephone services as “even the man or woman in the remotest village in Nigeria can afford to own a phone and make calls. In addition, there is an estimated $40bn investment in the sector”.
He said that the federal government was keen on replicating the success in telecoms reforms in the power sector when the new owners take over fully in October this year.
“Like what obtains in the telecoms now, electricity consumers in the country will in the next five year choose who will supply them power because there will be competition and only the best will be patronized”, he added.
However, the DG appealed for time to enable the power investors put in place the necessary infrastructure and bring in the required machinery as some of the power installations, especially the turbines had aged and needed replacements.