 The Honourable Victor Colade Akejo. The Honourable Minister of Industry, Trade, and Investment, Otumbah Diniya Dibayo. The Honourable Minister of Health, Dr. Osage Ehaniri. The Director General, Bureau of Public Enterprises, and Secretary of National Council on Privatization, Mr. Alex Oko. The Chairman of the Technical Committee of the National Council on Privatization, Malam Muhammad Kabeer Ahmad. Chairman of the Legal Committee of the National Council on Privatization, Mr. Yomi Okunu. Vice Chairman of the Technical Committee of the National Council on Privatization, Dr. Ayo Teriba. And other members of the National Council on Privatization present. Honoured guests, participants, ladies and gentlemen, it's a great pleasure to join the Director General in welcoming you all to this retreat of the National Council on Privatization for a comprehensive review of the proposed amendments to the Public Enterprises Privatization and Commercialization Act of 1999. I doubt whether there is anyone left who needs to be convinced that the only way to effectively address the massive infrastructural deficits that our country faces is by PPP arrangements as public-private sector arrangements in one form or the other. According to the Nigerian Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan, the NIMP, and the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, that's the ERGP, 2017 to 2020, Nigeria will require at least $2.3 trillion over the next 30 years to bridge this yearning gap. But a review of budgetary allocations for capital expenditure, even over a decade and the past decade, will show that government resources are completely insufficient for this purpose. While government can take either commercial or concessionary loans for infrastructure development, this is an additional burden for a usually considerably leveraged balance sheet. But there is a large pool of investable funds from both local and international investors for the development and maintenance of infrastructure. But these are only accessible, whether it's a business case, to be made for developing public infrastructure. So for both institutional and individual investors, there is far more comfort with lending, where or with lending or with equity participation, where a private sector entity partners with the public authority owner of the infrastructure. This way, the public partner can play its natural role of regulator, leaving business to the private regulation and policy, while business is left to the private sector, whose reason for being in any event is business. So for the investor, PPPs present the best of both worlds. However, we may not be able to fully unlock the potentially huge benefits that are afforded by PPPs due to the absence of a comprehensive PPP framework, setting out institutional responsibilities, which would provide investors with the necessary comfort to commit capital to infrastructure development. In particular, the ambiguity in the roles of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, the ICRC, and the borough of public enterprises, as well as other key stakeholders. This has been a source of concern for investors. So what exactly is the role of the ICRC? What exactly is the role of the BPE? This has now been addressed by policy pronouncement in the form of a circular. This is circular number SGF 50 slash S 37 slash 11 slash 749. And this is a circular that was issued on the 14th of September, 2020. The circular provides the much needed clarity on the institutional roles to be played by agencies of the federal government of Nigeria for PPP purposes. Now, in the light of that circular, the federal government has directed that the borough shall be responsible for the concession of public enterprises and infrastructure already listed in the first and second schedules of the public enterprises, privatization and commercialization act. The borough is also to act on behalf of government as the counterparty on all infrastructure projects being developed on a PPP basis. Consequently, the borough reviewed the provisions of the Public Enterprises, Privatization and Commercialization Act and has proposed amendments to exhaustively articulate the functions and powers of the National Council on Privatization and its Secretariat, which is the borough, in order to implement this additional PPP mandate. Distinguished participants, in view of the overarching objective then, to leverage on the potentially huge benefits or PPP arrangements to attract private sector capital for investment in infrastructure development in Nigeria. This retreat is designed to achieve the following purposes amongst others and the Director General has outlined several of these objectives. But one is to enable members of council to understand and appreciate the need for the proposed amendments to the Public Enterprises, Privatization and Commercialization Act. Two is to provide members with an opportunity to develop an appropriate strategy for stakeholder engagement and support the facilitation of the amendment of the act and the implementation of the federal government's PPP mandate. So these are the broad objectives of this stakeholder's meeting. And I'm positive that this forum will benefit considerably from your vast knowledge and experience. I'd like to urge you all to participate fully in the discussions. And it's now my very special pleasure to formally declare this retreat open. God bless the federal republic of Nigeria.