Tobias Sylvester
The Ministry of Finance has confirmed the plan by the Federal Government to sell some government-owned properties to fund the 2021 budget.
Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, disclosed this during the budget presentation ceremony which was done virtually on Tuesday, January 12, 2021.
According to her budget presentation titled “Public Presentation of 2021 FGN Approved Budget – Breakdown and Highlights”, the government intends to fund the budget 2021 by selling and concessioning government-owned properties and non-oil assets.
“Sales of government property” and “non-oil asset sales” were listed under the “additional financing” section of the document. This section shows an overview of how the deficit will be financed.
Although the document did not state the companies that have been put up for sale, neither did it state the expected revenue from the sales, this confirms earlier speculations of the government’s plan to sell off some properties.
In November 2020, the Bureau of Public Enterprise in a document presented to the Senate committee on Privatization disclosed that the federal government plans to sell the Integrated Power Plants in Geregu, Omotosho, and Calabar at N434 billion in 2021.
The document presented indicated plans by the Federal government to also concession the National Arts Theatre, Tafawa Balewa Square, and all the River Basin Development Authorities at N836 million while the National Stadium in Lagos, the Moshood Abiola Stadium, Abuja, and two others were pegged for concessioning at N100 million.
In addition to selling off national assets, the federal government also disclosed that it intends to finance the 2021 budget through borrowing from special accounts.
KanyiDaily recalls that President Muhammadu Buhari had signed the N13.58 trillion budget for the 2021 fiscal year – about N505 billion higher than the budget proposed in October, 2020.
