Vice President Kashim Shettima has urged members of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) to conduct all transactions with honesty, warning that he does not want to be called upon in the future to explain any wrongdoing in the handling of national assets.
Shettima, who also serves as Chairman of the NCP, gave the warning during the council’s **second meeting of 2025, held on Wednesday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The Vice President emphasised the importance of credibility and due process, especially in major transactions involving the nation’s key public assets. He said Nigeria remains exposed to legal disputes and arbitration risks due to questionable privatisation deals in the past.
“Our legal committee must ring-fence every one of these transactions,” Shettima said. “We are almost always vulnerable to arbitration and being shortchanged. Every transaction must be subjected to microscopic scrutiny so that ten years down the line, we will not be called upon to offer explanations.”
During the meeting, Shettima led discussions on several high-profile matters, including:
The divestment of shares in Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (Ibadan Disco)
The delineation of assets and liabilities of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN)
The review of the concession agreement for Zungeru Hydroelectric Power Plc
The council also reviewed updates from the World Bank’s \$500 million Distribution Sector Recovery Programme (DISREP), which is aimed at improving electricity distribution infrastructure in Nigeria.
In addition, members received briefings on ongoing dispute settlementswithin the power sector, and updates on the activities of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), which is the main body responsible for implementing the federal government’s privatisation and commercialisation policies.
Shettima’s remarks are seen as a strong message to ensure that all privatisation and concession processes are transparent, legal, and in the best interest of the country. He insisted that members must act with a sense of responsibility to avoid situations where past decisions return to haunt future administrations.
Nigeria’s privatisation programme, launched in the early 2000s, was aimed at reducing the government’s direct involvement in the economy by transferring public enterprises to private hands. However, the process has faced criticism over lack of transparency, poor monitoring, and failure by some private investors to meet performance targets.
