Commercialisation of River Basin Authorities Underway – Minister

Tue, Mar 8, 2016
By publisher
2 MIN READ

BREAKING NEWS, Business

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THE ministry of Water Resources has pledged to cooperate with the Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, to commercialise of the nation’s river basin authorities, RBDAs.

Sulaiman Adamu, minister of Water Resources, who made the pledge, while receiving Vincent Apkpotaire, acting director general of the BPE, in his office on Monday, March 7. Adamu assured the Bureau boss of the total willingness of the ministry to work with the BPE to ensure the successful commercialisation of the RBDAs in line with the Act of 1987 and commercialisation framework approved by the National Council on Privatisation, NCP.

While approving some of the strategies of the BPE in carrying out its assignments, the minister warned that he would not tolerate unnecessary bureaucratic bottlenecks in the process.

The minister said the ministry welcomed the BPE’s strategy to reform the RBDAs and urged it to keep pace with the ministry’s drive to speedily bring about change in the sector.

According to him, if the country’s RBDAs were working in line with the objectives for setting them up, government would have had no need to set up intervention agencies like Sure-P and the National Poverty Eradication Programme, NAPEP, among others.

Adamu said the ministry in consultation with key stakeholders such as the BPE would immediately set up a working group for the actualisation of the commercialisation programme which he said had become imperative.

Earlier, Akpotaire had informed the minister that restructuring the RBDAs was a necessary condition for the realisation of the federal government’s agricultural transformation agenda and ensuring food security for the nation.

Akpotaire further informed the minister that effective reform of the RBDAs should involve all stakeholders as represented in the Steering Committee constituted by the NPC and chaired by the minister of Water Resources.

The BPE boss reaffirmed the Bureau’s commitment to speedily drive the process in collaboration with the federal ministry of Water Resources and other relevant reform agencies, with the Minister as the political champion. To achieve this, a Project Advisory Team, PAT, earlier approved by the NCP would be reviewed to ensure that the membership and input of key ministries, Infrastructure Concessions and Regulatory Commission, ICRC, RBDAs and other stakeholders are captured.

— Mar 8, 2016 @ 16:10 GMT

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