The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) on Monday stated that it was set to conduct an Impact Assessment on some selected privatised enterprises under the reform and privatisation programme of the Federal Government.

The Director General of the privatisation agency, Mr Alex Okoh, said that the exercise would be conducted in collaboration with the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and Nigeria Institute of Social and Economics Research (NISER).

Okoh, was quoted in a statement by the Bureau’s Head, communications Unit, Amina Tukur Othman, as disclosing this at the inaugural meeting of the Assessment Technical Working Group (ATeWG) held last Thursday in Abuja.

According to him, the essence of the planned exercise is to enable the government assess the impact or otherwise of the privatisation programme.

Represented by the Director of Development Institutions and Natural Resources Department (DI & NR) in the Bureau, Mr. Joe Anichebe, at the meeting, the BPE boss noted that after three decades of the privatisation programme, the Bureau considered it necessary to review the performances of the privatised enterprises to ascertain whether or not the objectives of the programme have been achieved.

According to the statement, the Assessment Technical Group, which is chaired by a Deputy Director in the Bureau, Mr. Adbdul-Azeez Mafindi, has membership drawn from the NISER, NBS and BPE.

The group is to carry out neutral assessment of the Bureau’s concluded transactions to showcase the achievements and challenges encountered by the privatised enterprises as well as monitor the growth, efficiency of privatised enterprises.

It is also to evaluate and assess the effectiveness of privatised enterprises using relevant and accurate data used in planning effective interventions.

To ensure that the objectives of the exercise are realized, the Assessment Study will be carried out on six sectors, namely Telecommunications, Maritime (Ports), Eleme Petrochemicals Company, Cement Companies, Ground Handling companies (NAHCOL & SAHCOL), and the Hospitality sector.

In his remarks at the meeting, the representative of NISER, Mr. Louis Chete, thanked the BPE for the initiative and promised that his organization would work with other members of the group to achieve the desired goals of the exercise.