BY CHIKA OKEKE, Abuja
Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima has demanded aggressive expansion of Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) to drive Nigeria’s economic ambitions.
Speaking on Thursday during the first 2026 meeting of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Shettima said that the administration is focused on attracting investment and ensuring that such capital is strategically aligned with national development priorities.
"The task before us is not only to ensure that Nigeria emerges as a safe destination for private investment, but to align that investment with the governing purpose of this administration and the larger destiny of our nation," he said.
VP Shettima stressed that Nigeria’s long-standing ambition of becoming a trillion-dollar economy would remain out of reach without a deliberate balance between public enterprise and private sector dynamism, noting that economic prosperity must be intentionally designed and sustained through strong institutions.
According to him, "Prosperity does not happen by accident. It is designed, negotiated, protected, and sustained by institutions that understand that national assets must be deployed in the service of the people."
Reviewing progress made over the past year, the Vice President highlighted key milestones across sectors such as mining, agriculture, and energy, pointing in particular to the sale of Eko Electricity Distribution Company (Eko DISCO) as a major signal of renewed investor confidence.
Shettima attributed the growing investor interest to the policy direction and reform agenda of the administration, emphasising that credibility, consistency, and clarity remain the strongest drivers of capital inflows.
"Investors do not respond to rhetoric alone. They respond to coherence, to clarity, and to the evidence that a country knows where it is going and has the courage to stay the course," he said.
The Vice President commended improvements within the privatisation framework, particularly the enhanced governance processes and timely completion of audit reports, describing institutional discipline as critical to building trust.
He charged the council to accelerate the development of a robust pipeline of bankable projects and deepen the use of public-private partnerships as a central tool for economic expansion.
"We must accelerate the work of building a pipeline of bankable projects and executing more public-private partnership transactions to support our economic targets," he said.
Shettima emphasised the importance of post-privatisation oversight, urging stricter monitoring to ensure that privatised assets deliver on their contractual obligations and contribute meaningfully to national development.
The Vice President warned against policy inconsistencies within government institutions, adding that overlapping mandates and unclear roles could undermine investor confidence and slow reform progress.
Shedding light on the outcome of the meeting, the Director General of Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE), Mr. Ayodeji Ariyo Gbeleyi said that he updated the council on the progress made with the distribution sector recovery programme, an initiative financed by the World Bank to the tune of $500 million.
He explained that a major component of the programme is the procurement of about 3.22 million prepaid metres for Nigerians to bridge the metering gap that is currently estimated at about 5.6 million.
"As of today, we have signed a contract for 1,437,000 metres that have already been deployed in the country. As we speak, almost 400,000 of those metres have been installed across the 11 DISCOs within the country.
"These are all efforts geared towards ensuring that we can have stable power supply in the country and also ensuring that the era of estimated billing is a thing of the past, as promised by His Excellency Mr. President."
Gbeleyi noted that the effort of the Bureau is to complement President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's effort in terms of repositioning the economy and pivoting it towards a US$1 trillion gross domestic product economy in the near term.
To attain the feat, the DG informed that some ideal assets that were revamped and optimised, would be leveraged to upscale GDP to a $1 trillion economy.
The DG noted that the BPE ensured that its audited financial statements was up to date in line with global practises and the requirements of the Public Enterprises Act 1999.
He stated: "We inherited a situation where the audited financial statement of the BPE has been outstanding for three years. In less that nine months, we brought all of those audited financial statements up to date in line with the requirements of the Public Enterprises Act 1999.
"In our tradition of keeping to best practises, we also ensured that the account for 2024 were presented to Council in the first quarter of 2025. In terms of our consistent best practises, we presented today, the audited financial statement of the Bureau for the year ended 31st December 2025. Not so many agencies could have achieved that feat."
At a media briefing, he disclosed that the NCP approved N157m for 830 former staff of NICON as repatriation allowances outstanding for about 20 years.
He also highlighted the approval of the lease of four coal blocks to a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) of the Enugu State Government, subject to securing mining licenses from the Mining Cadastral Office.
With the aggressive pursuit of PPP, the Federal Government has reaffirmed its commitment to unlocking the full value of national assets and attracting global capital.
This was contained in a statement by Senior Special Assistant to The President on Media & Communications (Office of The Vice President), Stanley Nkwocha in Abuja.
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