…As NNPC pledges support for bill on gas flare
From Uche Usim, Abuja
Director-General, Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) Mr. Alex Okoh, has said the structure of reforms being carried out at the organisation may include the listing of privatised enterprises on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
Okoh said this in a statement issued by the Head, Public Communications, Mr Chukwumah Nwokoh, on Sunday in Abuja after a meeting with members of the technical committee on attraction of new listings to the capital market, added that the measure would boost listing on the nation’s exchange.
The BPE boss at the forum pledged strong collaboration of the agency with the capital market to help strengthen the market.
“We will collaborate in reviewing what the conditions are and try to make it right for more companies to list.
This was even as he raised concerns about the stability of the market and prospects of getting good value should the privatised entities be listed.
“We will collaborate with you in establishing the conditions that reduce the nerves of the core investors.”
He explained that there was a period of assessment of privatised entities during which the BPE examines the conditions for listing on the exchange while urging the committee to adopt a holistic approach in carrying out its assignment.
The statement also quoted Chairman of the committee, Mr Jallo Waziri, an Executive Director at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) as saying ” the exchange was engaging trade groups, regulators and quasi-regulators to actualise its mandate.”
Meanwhile, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has expressed determination to beat the 2020 gas flare out deadline put in place by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).
The NNPC Group Managing Director, Dr. Maikanti Baru said measures and facilities were in place to curb gas flaring.
Speaking at a one-day public hearing on Gas Flaring Prohibition Bill 2017 held at the National Assembly in Abuja at the weekend, Baru who was represented by the Managing Director of the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), Mr. Yusuf Matashi, expressed NNPC’s strong support for the legislation to reduce gas flaring, adding that the Corporation considered the legislation from the financial benefits it promises to capture rather than seeing it from the point of view of penalty.