For the umpteenth time, successive governments in Nigeria, including the sitting Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration, have flaunted proposals to sell some of the nation’s ‘rotting’ assets in the face of ever-present budget funding crises. Nigeria’s current minister of finance and coordinating minister for the economy, Wale Edun, as usual, repeated the same proposal recently in faraway Saudi Arabia during a conference for emerging market economies (EMEs).
In line with the usual prevarications, however, Edun said the government was still deciding which assets would be offered, and when exactly the sales would take place, stressing that “some of the transactions are expected to be completed next year.” He neither gave details on the size nor the sectors that would be involved.
As far back as 2023, JP Morgan, a global investment bank, had ‘revealed’ that Nigeria was upping its game in a bid to realize a whopping $17 billion from asset sales; “a move aimed at relieving pressure on the country’s struggling foreign exchange (FX) liquidity.” The bank said in a report on Nigeria in August 2023: “The authorities are in the initial stages of identifying assets for sale, which may provide some medium-term relief.”
Elaborating, JP Morgan said: “For example, the President’s policy advisory council has recommended the government sell down its stake in most joint-venture oil and gas assets, a proposal that is estimated to bring in up to US$17 billion.”
Almost three years after the JP Morgan ‘revelation,’ Nigeria’s state-owned asset sales proposal remains unclear; hence, Minister Edun could only use the ‘plan’ as a marketing gimmick for the country during the EMEs conference in Saudi Arabia. He said: “What we have put in place has made Nigeria very competitive in terms of the economic conditions,” adding that: “it is very attractive in terms of incentives for investors…., and it is now more comfortable to invest in Nigeria.” The minister also hinted that “we are also interested in public-private partnership (PPP) and optimisation of our assets by having others come in and invest.”
As these prevarications and marketing stunts are being bandied by top government officials like Edun, Nigeria’s ‘rotting’ assets worth trillions of naira are lying in several places across the country. Whether in the energy sector, infrastructure, agriculture or non-core public enterprises, these public assets are either in a decrepit or abandoned state; many of them still gulp huge chunks of public funds to no end.
Granted that Nigeria may not have had a palatable experience with its erstwhile privatization and concession models in re-engineering and restructuring of government-owned enterprises (GOEs), the near-total abandonment of these GOEs in the past one decade or so is no political option. A classic example remains the nation’s four huge refineries, with an installed refining capacity of well over 450,000 barrels per day.
At a recent function in Abuja, the group managing director and chief executive of Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Bayo Ojulari, disclosed that Nigeria’s state-owned refineries were shut down because they were operating at “monumental loss” and wasting public funds. He said that the facilities failed due to a lack of operational capacity and a focus on contracting (in engineering, procurement, and construction) over actual running of the plants.
Unfortunately, after reeling off the problems and challenges confronting the moribund national assets (refineries), Ojulari who spoke at the 2026 Nigerian International Energy Summit, could not be definitive as to what next would happen to them: either outright divestment, privatization or concession. Rather, he said: “All options, including selling stakes in the refineries to bring in experienced operators” are being considered to ensure they can eventually self-finance.
If “all options” are still being considered for the ‘dead assets’ that have been gulping trillions of public funds (and recording huge losses) at a time the coordinating minister for the economy is telling the whole world that Nigeria was ready with asset sales, the question is: who is deceiving who? What or which assets would Nigeria be selling to the world if not the four public-owned refineries that have remained a drainpipe to the national coffers for over a decade?
Incidentally, the coming on-stream of the long-awaited Dangote Refinery, and its already demonstrated viability and profitability so far, are sufficient proof that such facilities can flourish in Nigeria. Justifiably, practically all critical stakeholders in the Nigerian energy sector have over the years called for the outright sale of the state-owned refineries. But perhaps owing to lack of political will and the warped economic agenda of successive governments, the ‘dead assets’ have been left to become an Albatross to the nation’s economic progress.
In the area of infrastructure, most of the country’s highways (express roads) across the country have been left almost impassable; they have remained death-traps where criminals (especially, kidnappers) ply their ‘trade.’ There was a time in this country when virtually all the major roads were dotted with tollgates; and collections therefrom were meant for the regular upkeep and maintenance of those roads.
Over time, however, the management of those tollgates and revenues accruing from them got riddled with corruption, embezzlement and willful misappropriation of funds. Rather than dealing with the perpetrators of the malfeasance, the government opted to demolish all the tollgates across the country; thus, leaving the roads almost permanently in a deplorable state.
Should the government of the day be really concerned about its ‘wasting assets’, the upkeep and maintenance of the dilapidated network of federal roads across the country is a sure bet for a viable PPP. Under the model, not only would the tollgates be better manned by private sector-operators, the much needed revenue would also be generated for the government.
The same infrastructure decay is visible practically everywhere in the aviation industry, the seaports, and health facilities across the country: abandoned ports/facilities in Lagos, Port-Harcourt, Warri, Onne, Calabar, among others. The same with facilities at inland ports in Onitsha, Lokoja, Koko, etc. In the aviation sector, the carcasses of so many aircraft belonging to the ‘dead’ but once-vibrant Nigeria Airways remain an eyesore of all times.
Not-too-long ago, when the globally renowned Virgin Atlantic Airline ventured a partnership with Nigeria (via a PPP) to revive the ‘dead’ Nigeria Airways, the officialdom/bureaucracy thoroughly frustrated Richard Branson, the Virgin proprietor, out of the country. Either through a franchise or other deals, Virgin Atlantic Airline was to ensure Nigeria owned a national carrier.
In the same vein, it has remained in the realm of conjecture to many Nigerians as to what has become the fate of the long-abandoned former Federal Secretariat, Ikoyi, Lagos-property. The huge physical structures are still standing there, housing battalions of rodents and reptiles, fully overgrown with weeds — for almost 35 years, since Nigeria’s Federal Capital was moved to Abuja (on December 12, 1991).
The question therefore remains: is the government of the day serious about asset sales, or is the proposal part of the deferred hope agenda? For upwards of three years, the Tinubu-administration has taken the easy way out — borrowing money from all markets and places! The incoherence of Minister Wale Edun and NNPC’s Ojulari, on the matter at different fora, speaks volume about the government’s indecision on asset sales. It, certainly, is not yet on the government’s front burner of policies, until most Nigerians are pauperized through the imposition of an assortment of taxes, tariffs and duties.
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Marcel Okeke, a practising economist and consultant in Business Strategy & Sustainability based in Lagos, is a former Chief Economist at Zenith Bank Plc. He can be reached at: obioraokeke2000@yahoo.com; +2348033075697
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