nigeria

Nigeria sells assets to raise $16 billion for budget boost

Nigeria plans to sell some assets over the next four years to generate as much as $16.4bn to reduce the burden on the public budget, a budget ministry document showed.

The sales will help tackle inefficiencies and stem “corruption in public enterprises”, according to the document obtained by Bloomberg, which outlines the West African nation’s plans for economic recovery from 2017 to 2020.

President Muhammadu Buhari will introduce the proposal on an unspecified date in February. The assets it may sell were not named in the document.

Nigeria estimates its economy contracted 1.5% in 2016, partly because of a decline in the price and output of oil, the country’s biggest export and revenue generator.

Buhari proposed a 20% increase in this year’s budget to stimulate the economy and help GDP expand an average of 4.7% annually over four years and reach 7% in 2020.

The government targets oil production of 2.5-million barrels a day by 2020 to boost export earnings, it said in the document.

Bloomberg