The federal government on Thursday reaffirmed its commitment to unlocking the full value of national assets as part of efforts to attract global capital. 

Vice-President Kashim Shettima stated this during the first 2026 meeting of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP), held at the presidential villa in Abuja.

The VP called for an aggressive expansion of public-private partnerships to drive Nigeria’s economic ambitions.

Mr Shettima said President Bola Tinubu’s administration was committed to attracting investment and ensuring that such capital was 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 also to align that investment with the governing purpose of this administration and the larger destiny of our nation,” he said.

Mr Shettima said that Nigeria’s ambition to become a trillion-dollar economy would remain out of reach without a deliberate balance between public enterprise and private-sector dynamism.

He noted that economic prosperity must be intentionally designed and sustained through strong institutions.

“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,” he said.

Mr Shettima attributed the growing investor interest to the administration’s policy direction and reform agenda.

He emphasised 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.

Mr Shettima commended improvements within the privatisation framework, particularly the enhanced governance processes and timely completion of audit reports.

The vice-president noted that institutional discipline was critical to building trust.

Mr Shettima, therefore, urged the NCP 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 of executing more public-private partnership transactions to support our economic targets,” he said.

He emphasised the importance of post-privatisation oversight, urging stricter monitoring to ensure privatised assets meet their contractual obligations.

Mr Shettima warned against policy inconsistencies within government institutions, noting that overlapping mandates and unclear roles could undermine investor confidence and slow reform progress.

“Policy confusion is expensive. Overlapping mandates unsettle the market. If we are to speak convincingly to investors, the government must speak with one voice,” he added.

The director-general of the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE), Ayodeji Gbeleyi, updated the council on progress in the distribution sector recovery programme.

He explained that the initiative was financed by the World Bank to the tune of $500 million.

He explained that a major component of the programme was 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 a 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,” the VP said.

Mr Gbeleyi noted that the Bureau’s effort is to complement President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s efforts in repositioning the economy, pivoting it towards a $1 trillion gross domestic product in the near term.

“The ideal assets that have been revamped, that have been optimised, are to be leveraged to upscale GDP to a $1 trillion economy,” he said.

(NAN)