Nigeria’s Telecoms Sector, Very Attractive To Investors – BPE

The Director-General  of
the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE),  Mr. Benjamin Dikki, has declared  the telecoms  sector  in Nigeria as being very attractive to investors.
The DG  stated this in Abuja last Friday at the National Defence College  Course  23 Seminar titled “Accountability in  Governance and National Development”.
Dikki said that the telecoms sector has so far attracted over $40 billion investments  and created over one million job opportunities  for Nigerians.
The DG noted that the deregulation of the telecoms. Sector 13 years, ago and the participation of private GSM operators like MTN, GLO, Airtel, Etisalat, Visafone etc, has resulted in over 123 million active telephone lines available in Nigeria compared  to 450,000 lines before the telecoms sector deregulation by the Federal Government in 2001.
He said BPE has played  critical role in enthroning accountability and good governance  in the  country.
Dikki said through the efforts of  the  BPE institutions were established to ensure  accountability and transparency in governance,   stressing  that National Pension  Commission (PENCOM) was established to ensure accountability of staff pensions  deductions.
He said pencom today has accumulated over N4 trillion in stable deposits for development  investment as well as the formation of the Debt Management Office (DMO) being responsible for the continued determination of Nigeria’s total external borrowings.
The DG explained that the formation of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has increased  accountability and assisted in reducing theft of government funds now freed for development and the conviction of many corrupt officials
Other gains listed by the BPE boss were the unbundling of Power Holding Company of Nigeria PHCN into 18 successor companies and the successful privatization of the power sector, stressing that the power sector today  has been taken out of direct government  budget into private investors.
He stressed that the  Federal Government has also  handover the various seaports through concession with huge investment that government could not have contemplated.
He called for support for the bureau of public enterprises from Nigerians for it to ensure proper  accountability, transparency  and honesty in governance in the country.