ABUJA - The National Council on Privatisation (NCP) has approved a work plan for the privatisation and commercialisation of 106 federal government’s enterprises.
The Minister of State for Information and Communications, Alhaji Ibrahim Nakande, said this on Monday in Abuja at the end of the 55th meeting of the council. He said the meeting, which was presided over by the Vice-President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, approved transactions and work plan for Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) to either privatise or commercialise the enterprises between 2008 and 2011. He said some of the key organisations slated for privatisation or commercialisation included NITEL/MTEL, PMCC, NICON Insurance and the National Parks.
According to the Minister, the council approved the immediate commencement of the privatisation of seven national parks, which include the Kainji Lake National Park, Old Oyo National Park , Gashaka-Gumti National Park. The rest are Chad Basin National Park ; Cross River National Park, Yankari National, Okomu National Park and Kamuku Park in Kaduna State . On Yankari National Park, which was believed to have been returned to Bauchi state government, Nakande said it was being privatised by the federal government, following Bauchi state government’s failure to meet the conditions given to it. He said already, preliminary reports indicated that the Bauchi state government had breached the initial agreements reached for the transfer of the Yankari Park to it.
The Minister, however, assured that due process would be followed in retaking the park and its subsequent privatisation along with other national parks.
He said the council had equally approved the constitution of the Parks Steering Committee to assist the NCP in developing a policy for protection, conservation and ecotourism in the national parks. “In order to effectively pursue the recommendations of the diagnostic review adviser, the secretariat is proposing for the council to constitute an inter-ministerial and inter- disciplinary National Parks Steering Committee,” he said.
According to him, membership of the committee would include the Minister of Environment and Urban Development, who would serve as Chairman, Directors-General of BPE, NTDC, National Park Service (NPS), and Chairman, NCP.
Other members of the committee would include permanent secretaries, ministries of Environment and Urban Development, Culture, Tourism and National Orientation and representatives of Nigerian Conservation Foundation and parks, host state governments. Nakande also said the council had approved the constitution of two committees — Development Finance Institution committee and River Basin Development Authorities (RBDAs) Steering Committee. He said the 17-man Development Finance Institution Committee would be chaired by the Minister of Finance, while the RBDAs committee would be headed by the Minister of Water Resources.
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