Nigerian Govt Seeks To Commercialise River Basin Development Authorities

Suleiman Adamu, the minister of water resources has said the government is seeking alternative sources of funding to shore-up the revenue base of the nation’s River Basin Development Authorities (RBDAs) and make them self-reliant as part of the ongoing reforms in the agency.

Adamu said the reform of the RBDAs is not privatisation but partial commercialisation to make them economically viable, self-reliant and sustainable.

He disclosed this in Abuja at a three-day business implementation training on the partial commercialisation of four pilot RBDAs.

He assured that the reform would cause no job losses, adding that the federal government was aware of the RBDA’s challenges.

Four RBDAs namely: Ogun-Osun RBDA, Upper-Niger RBDA, Sokoto-Rima Basin RBDA and Niger-Delta RBDA have been selected by the federal ministry of water resources in collaboration with the BPE for phased pilot partial commercialisation.