The Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, Mr Alex Okoh, has said that the Federal Government saved over N500bn from concessioning of the nation’s seaports.
Okoh who was represented by Director, Infrastructure and Public-Private Partnership, Department of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, Amaechi Aloke, said involving the private sector saved the government a fortune.
Aloke who spoke at a virtual forum on alternative financing model for Nigeria’s maritime sector which held on Thursday said the government had been able to make N538bn in a space of 11 years after the private sector was brought in.
He said, “One can say that the involvement of the private sector in the ports has paid off to the government. Based on our reviews, we can see from the slides that more than half a trillion has been generated either in the form of fees paid, throughput fees, investment in infrastructure, investment in other equipment.
“As a result of these, tax paid to the government came to a total of N538bn between 2006 and 2017. That is the kind of money the government would have lost if it had not done the reform in the sector.”
Giving more details about the privatisation, Aloke said the government reformed the port structure in 2006 to make Nigeria a major destination for trade in the sub-region
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