National Assets Sale: Federal Government Makes Final Decision...See interestingDetails

 

The federal government has made a U-turn in its proposed bid to dispose national assets to raise money in order to reflate the economy, describing it as mere speculation.

This position was made known by the minister of information, Lai Mohammed, after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday, at the Presidential Villa.

This comes barely one week after the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting, presided over by the vice president, Yemi Osinbajo, with 23 state governors in attendance, backed the sale of national assets as one of the ways to raise cash to reflate the economy.

The NEC, which is the highest economic decision making body, also canvassed advance payment of licence renewals, infrastructure concessioning and implementation of fiscal stimulus.

Leadership recalls that the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, had penultimate while confirming government’s plans to sell about 15 per cent of its oil assets held by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which is expected to yield an inflow of $10 billion to the country.

He had said in an interview with top media managers in Lagos that the sale would commence soon. He said the expected income would have been up to $15 billion if the assets were sold earlier in the year and added that a team of consultants had been commissioned to carry out a study on the proposed sale.

Finance minister, Mrs Kemi Adeosun had also told business editors in an interview this week that sale of assets would reduce government borrowing.