Federal Government Plans to Sell 36 Assets to Finance 2021 Budget

The Nigerian government intends to sell some properties to help finance the country’s 2021 national budget.

The total of 36 properties have been categorized into five departments.

The categories are the Industries and communication department which has eight projects, Development institutions, and Natural Resources departments with six projects, the Energy sector has nine projects while the Development institutions and Natural Resources departments have six projects.

The projects are expected to be sold or concessioned between January 2021 and November 2022.

Some of the properties listed for sale or concession are the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB), the Abuja International Conference Centre (ICC), some unnamed refineries, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Abuja Water Board, Nigerian Film Corporation, among others.

Each property has different sale or concession terms. While some will be in share sales, others will undergo concession and some will also be commercialised fully or partially, others are also by core investor sale.

A core investor sale is the transfer of at least 51% ownership, accompanied by management control, in a company from the government to new private owners.

According to the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE), the core investor may be individuals or firms, Nigerian or foreign, with the money required to buy and operate the company, and the technical and managerial capabilities needed to ensure that the company is profitable.

Nigeria’s total budget for 2021 is N13.58 trillion ($35.62 billion). It has an approved statutory transfer of $1.3 billion and $8.65 billion as approved for debt services.

Nigeria’s Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed said the country intends to borrow $14.69 billion from both domestic and foreign resources.

She said they will borrow money from the World Bank, Islamic Development Bank, and countries like Brazil.