The Federal Government declared on Monday that it had established four technical working groups to examine and put into action a strategic roadmap for the revival of failing businesses all around the nation.
The Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, Alex Okoh, inaugurated the organisations on behalf of the Federal Government and stated that the initiative was in line with the Federal Government’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan and the target of making doing business in Nigeria easier.
It listed the groupings, which included individuals employed in the oil palm, automotive, housing (brick and clay), mining, and steel industries.
The BPE boss, who was represented by the bureau’s Director of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Ignatius Ayewoh, noted that the event was a culmination of the efforts by various stakeholders which started in 2018 to revive non-performing privatised enterprises across the country.
He said the BPE in discharging its supervisory duties on privatised enterprises through the instrumentality of result-based monitoring and evaluation, discovered that about 16 per cent of the privatised companies were non-performing.
Okoh said the result of the findings was submitted to the National Council on Privatisation in 2018 and to the Senate Committee on Privatisation in 2020, as this led to a meeting of the relevant stakeholders in the ailing enterprises in July 2018.
He said the terms of reference for the working groups include to conduct diagnostic study on the enterprises in order to identify their current status (operational and financial positions) and conditions in terms of ownership, share structure and capacity utilisation.
He said the groups would “prepare a business plan that meets the current sectoral requirements, examine the challenges in the sectors, and develop a comprehensive five-year, (2023 – 2027), turnaround programme for each of the non-performing enterprises.”
Others include to “review and advise the Federal Government on the processes and implementation the turnaround programme and determine the potential and economic viability of the sectors, among others.”
Also speaking at the event, the Director, Post-Transaction Management, BPE, Toibudeen Oduniyi, urged members of the groups to contribute their expertise for the actualisation of the much-desired revitalisation of the non-performing enterprises for the economic growth of the country.
