Oyo Govt. Begins Review Of State-owned Moribund Assets – Commissioner

The Oyo State Government has begun the review of state-owned moribund companies and other assets to relieve government of excessive liabilities and unnecessary government expenditure.

The Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Mr Toye Arulogun, made this known in a statement in Ibadan on Sunday,

The moribund companies and assets being reviewed are: Conpole Limited, Cultural Centre and Nigeria Paper Mill Ibadan.

Others are, Trans Motel Jericho, Trans Motel Iseyin, Ado Awaye Lake, Bowers Tower, Cashew Industries Limited, Fasola farms amongst others.

Arulogun said a committee handling the review of the assets would make recommendations after a thorough determination of their current viability, prospects and future economic benefits.

He said that the committee was expected to review them under three main categories and recommend them for Concession, Public Private Partnership (PPP) Arrangement or Outright sale.

The commissioner explained that the action was in line with the spirit of the government’s 2017 Budget of Self-Reliance, noting that some of the assets cost government huge expenditure in spite of their moribund state.

He said that government was more concern on the assets yielding revenue rather than being waste pipes.

“The Oyo State Government’s conviction is that instead of having these moribund assets lie idle across the state, we want to revamp those that can be revamped; concession some, put some on the PPP platform and sell others out rightly,“ he said.

He said that government would not rush into taken decisions on the moribund assets, adding that input of relevant stakeholders, shareholders and the general public would be needed.

“The committee is consulting widely and still open to more contributions,” the commissioner said.

Arulogun said that the committee has been mandated to follow the principles of due diligence in discharging its responsibilities.

He explained that the moribund assets would be subjected to proper inventory, appraisal and valuation before actions are taken on them.