The Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Mr. Benjamin Dikki has revealed that in order to sustain the gains of past reforms, eight critical reform bills are before the Federal Executive Council and will soon be sent to the National Assembly for passage into Law. The bills are: Railway Bill; National Transport Commission Bill;Inland Waterways Bill ;Ports &Harbor Reform Bill ;Road Sector Reform Bill; Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Bill ;Roads Fund Bill and Postal Sector Reform Bill.
Dikki made the revelation in Abuja on Wednesday in a presentation to the staff of DFID and other international development partners on “The Federal Government’s Privatization And Economic Reform Programme”.
The DG noted that the agency’s Collaboration with international development partners has positioned the Bureau as Knowledge- based Institution.
He said without the Technical and Financial support of the World Bank, the US Agency for International Development (USAID, the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) and other development partners, the reform and privatization programme of the Federal Government would not have achieved the success recorded so far.
During the interaction, he observed that that these new bills listed above will abrogate monopoly laws, liberate the sectors, separate the roles of policy formulation from regulation and the two from operations in the sector and also set up independent regulators for the sectors.
He also enumerated the various sector specific reform laws midwifed by the BPE, including:Power Sector Reform Act;Nigeria Railway Commission Bill ;Telecommunications Act;National Inland Water Way Bill ;Solid Minerals Act;Gas Bill ;Petroleum Industry Bill Federal Competition Commission Bill ;Ports and Harbour Authorities Bill ;Postal Sector Reform Bill;National Transport Commission Bill;Industrial Policy;Federal Roads Authority Bill ;Pension Reform Act and Roads Fund Bill
Dikki told the international audience that the overarching objective of the Federal Government’s Reform and Privatization program was the need to “provide our people with the basic and affordable infrastructure to enable them create employment for themselves” as well as redirect funding by Government to other key sectors of the economy that are socially imperative such as health, education, etc. and encourage the private sector to be the engine room for economic growth and development.
He took them through the history of reforms in Nigeria and some of the key reform initiatives of the Bureau, noting that Power Sector Policy of 2001 and Electric Power Sector Reform Act of 2005 were aimed at ensuring sustained electricity supply by creating a conducive investment environment for private sector investment and managerial expertise
Dikki also noted that the BPE championed the reforms that have revolutionized the country’s telecommunications sector with the enactment of the Telecom Act 2003 and the licensing of several service providers that have created millions of new jobs in the economy. “From a tele-density of 0.42%, representing 450,000 telephone lines in 2001, the country’s tele-density has grown to 82%, representing over 123 million active telephone lines as at June 2013,” he said.
He pointed out that prior to the enactment of the Pension Reform Act of 2004, Public Enterprises habitually deducted pension contributions from their employees and lumped same with recurrent expenditure and spent it, that he said, created a serious social problem.
He further noted that the pension reforms midwifed by the BPE simply separated the agency that deducted pension contributions from the agencies that managed such contributions.
The DG said that with the establishment of Pension Commission and entrenchment of a stable pension policy in Nigeria, retirees are now guaranteed payment on retirement. Besides providing over N4 trillion in stable bank deposits that enables the banks to lend long term.
Dikki further elaborated on the role of the BPE in championing the reforms of the nation’s seaports through the concession of the various port terminals, adding that before the reform, it was practically impossible to carry out meaningful business activities in the ports as it took months to clear goods.
He said ports operations were characterized by long waiting periods, diversion of Nigerian bound vessels to neighboring countries and very high and duplicated charges to Ports users.
The BPE boss said Nigeria will continue to initiate measures to attract quality foreign investors and capital that will boost technology transfer, economic development and Foreign exchange in-flow.
He said Nigeria would continue to provide assurance and comfort to investors on the viability of recovering their costs and having a reasonable return on their investments.
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