A senior presidential aide said on Monday Nigeria will not completely sell off its seaports but will only allow private operators to manage them for efficiency and profitability.
”We are not privatising the ports as people have falsely reported. Instead, we are enhancing private activity at the ports to make them more efficient. The government will always own the ports,” Magnus Kpakol, senior economic adviser to President Olusegun Obasanjo, told reporters.
Public criticism has grown in recent months against an outright sale of the ports, with opponents of the sell-off saying the ports are a vital strategic asset that should remain in state hands.
”What is happening at the ports is that we are making the ports more and more private-intense. That is to say we will allow concessions within the ports as a way of building or encouraging efficiency,” Kpakol said.
Two weeks ago, the government-appointed privatisation agency BPE said it was looking for private firms to operate the ports from next month.
BPE director Tijjani Abdullahi said the process would begin with the appointment of privatisation advisers in September.
He said the privatisation would be gradual, starting with the appointment of advisers in September and ending in March next year with the announcement of core investors to manage the ports.
The ports are among a number of state-run firms slated for either full or partial privatisation under the government’s slow-moving programme. – Sapa-AFP