By Kunle Sanni –
The National Council on Privatisation (NCP) has approved the Bureau of Public Enterprises’ (BPE) request to conclude engagements with Transcorp Power Consortium on the execution of the Performance Agreements (PAs) for the sale of Afam Power Plc and Afam III Fast Power Limited.
The council said the move aims to regularise outstanding post-acquisition conditions and ensure the commercial viability of the power assets.
Chairman of the NCP, Vice President Kashim Shettima, who presided over the council’s third meeting of the year at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, called for a shift in Nigeria’s privatisation agenda from asset disposal to asset optimisation as part of efforts to drive the nation’s trillion-dollar economy ambition.
Shettima emphasised that the NCP must serve as the “economic compass” guiding investment decisions and policy direction, adding that Nigeria’s growth goals would remain theoretical without discipline and vision in managing public assets.
“Our aspiration to build a trillion-dollar economy demands discipline, vision, and strict adherence to the economic compass set by this council,” he said. “We must replace bureaucratic bottlenecks with commercial agility and relieve government of the costly burden of subsidising inefficient state-owned enterprises.”
He urged the council to explore modern privatisation models such as long-term concessions, asset-backed securitisation, and performance-tied investor sales, while insisting on transparency and zero tolerance for ambiguities to boost investor confidence.
Presenting a memo to the council, BPE Director-General Ayodeji Ariyo Gbeleyi explained that the Federal Government had completed the sale of Afam Power Plc to Transcorp Power Consortium, with proceeds amounting to ₦53.9 billion.
Gbeleyi noted that the Performance Agreements, once executed, would allow the BPE to commence post-privatisation monitoring of the investor’s obligations, particularly the operational and performance targets agreed upon in the transaction.