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El-Rufai wants cut in cost of governance

By Mathias Okwe, Assistant Business Editor, Abuja
28 September 2016   |   2:29 am
Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has kicked against the call by the National Council of State (NEC) as well as some senior government officials, including Africa’s richest man ...
Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El Rufai.

Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El Rufai.

Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has kicked against the call by the National Council of State (NEC) as well as some senior government officials, including Africa’s richest man, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, for the disposal of national assets.

El-Rufai, one-time Director-General of Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), spoke at World Pension Summit ‘Africa Special’ co- hosted by The Netherland-based World Pension Summit Organisation and the National Pension Commission (PenCom) in Abuja.

He rather called for solutions from experts, just as he argued that instead of selling assets, the cost of governance should be reduced or what was not necessary eliminated.

He maintained that only national assets that were not doing well should be disposed off with the aim that buyers would turn them around for viability and job creation.

He added: “Yes, we are in a crisis. And it’s a short-term crisis. We should proffer solutions on how to solve it. Don’t say don’t do this, don’t do that without preferring solutions because Nigeria needs to have $40 billion in her reserves for our currency to stabilize. Unless our currency stabilises, we cannot even plan anything. But there is a middle to long-term restructuring challenge. And we are not going to do that unless we stabilise the macroeconomic indices now. We have to tame the tide of exchange rate, we have to lower the interest rate. We have to stabilise the economy first before we can plan for the future.

“ In my opinion, the solution we have is to look at our non-productive assets, put them out in the market in a way that is sensible and sequence them properly.”

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