Nigeria aims to start selling state-owned assets to private investors this year, stepping up efforts to attract capital to finance its widening budget deficit.
The government is still deciding which assets will be offered and when the sales will take place, according to Wale Edun who disclosed this on Monday on the sidelines of the AlUla Conference for Emerging Market Economies in Saudi Arabia. Some of the transactions are expected to be completed next year, he said.
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“The plan is to offer some assets in 2026,” Edun said, without providing details on the size or sectors involved.
Africa’s biggest oil producer plans to spend N58 trillion this year, but muted oil income is expected to keep revenues at N33.27 trillion, resulting to a budget deficit of roughly N25 trillion. But the government said it aims to cut the deficit through asset sales.
President Bola Tinubu has pushed through some of Nigeria’s most far-reaching economic changes in decades since taking office in May 2023.
His administration scrapped fuel subsidies that had drained public finances, loosened controls on the naira to allow it trade more freely against the dollar, and began overhauling the tax system to boost revenue.
Those measures have started to yield results. Inflation has eased significantly from the highs of 2024, the naira has become more stable after sharp swings, and government revenue has improved.
“What we have put in place has made Nigeria very competitive in terms of the economic conditions,” Edun said. “It is very attractive in terms of the incentives for investors. I think investors are now more comfortable to invest in Nigeria.”
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The asset sales would form part of a broader push to deepen private sector participation in Africa’s most populous nation, where the state still controls large swathes of the economy.
Nigeria is already in talks with a Chinese company and other investors to operate some of its aging refineries that gulped N13 trillion while idle.
The discussions, according to the authorities, include an option for investors to take equity stakes in the plants, which have barely functioned for decades despite billions of dollars spent on rehabilitation.
After nearly three years of reforms, the government now wants to channel private capital into infrastructure and productive assets to lift growth that’s estimated to settle at 4.4 percent, its fastest growth in more than a decade, according to the World Bank.
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“We are interested in public-private partnerships and the optimisation of our assets by having others come in and invest,” Edun said.
Nigeria has taken a similar route before. It privatized electricity generation and distribution companies in 2013 and sold state-owned telecom operator Nitel in 2015, moves that were aimed at improving efficiency and reducing the burden on public finances.
With reforms largely in place, officials are betting that renewed asset sales will help unlock investment, modernise key sectors and sustain the country’s economic recovery.
