In a frantic attempt to dig a hole out of the economic recession, there appears to be a consensus among government functionaries to sell some of Nigeria’s public assets. Although the government is still trying to make up its mind which assets to put up for sale, there has been a cacophony of suggestions from those who should know and the not-so-knowledgeable ones. From a group that boasts Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote; Senate President, Bukola Saraki; the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele; and his predecessor and now Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi; comes the advice that strategic sales of national assets should be targeted to ensure that Nigeria spends her way out of the present recession.
While Dangote is calling for the divestment of interests in such assets as the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company to raise short-term capital, Saraki believes such a move would not only shore up capital, but would “calm investors, discourage currency speculation and stabilise the economy.” Emefiele even put a figure to how much could be raised, saying that if the move had been contemplated when the prices of oil were at between $50 and $55, it could have netted up to $40 billion. The CBN governor who, alongside Sanusi, advised a buy-back guarantee on such assets, said, “Unfortunately, the market has become soft. Now, if we choose to do that now, we could still get $10 – 15 billion or maybe $20 billion.”
Source: Punch
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