Property belonging to the Nigerian Mining Corporation (NMC) was yesterday sold by the federal government to enable it generate funds to pay outs-tanding pension liabilities of staff of the company.

The assets include staff quarters, the NMC headquarters and undeveloped plots of land.

The landed properties of the NMC for which bids were opened were: residential housing estate in Jos comprising Hill Top Estate with 33 units of houses and a block of six flats; Dogo Dutse Estate with five blocks of 22 flats; Coca Cola Estate with 12 units; and Makeri House with one unit of six bedrooms plus one guest chalet and two boys quarters.

Also being sold are Madalla Estate, Suleja close to Zuma Rock along Abuja-Kaduna express road comprising 40 units of houses; the NMC corporate headquarters at

Tudun Wada, Jos, made up of 18 buildings; Mineral House, a three-storey building in Ikeja, Lagos , and undeveloped plots of land measuring about 20 hectares.

Director-General of BPE, Mrs. Irene Chigbue, who spoke before the bids were open said “majority of the staff of the corporation have been retrenched while some have gone into retirement. The government therefore needed a huge sum of money to pay the pensioners. The sale of the non-core assets will therefore provide some money to fund the pension scheme of the corporation.”

She explained that the properties were valued before they were presented for bidding adding that a reserve price has been fixed for each of the properties below which they would not be sold.

She said the government had to separate the core assets from the non-core ones, as exigencies permit, in determining their privatisation mode.

“The essence is to properly direct the attention of the private investor to the main business of such enterprise for maximum productivity; and of course, for the greater benefit of Nigerians. This we have done for the Nigerian Mining Corporation.”

She said the company has created so many subsidiaries, mining/mineral titles and built many houses as staff quarters in Jos and Madalla in Suleja along with the Mineral House in Ikeja, Lagos, which are being sold to generate funds.

Chigbue stated that with the enactment of the Minerals and Mining Act of 2007, the NMC was now going into liquidation as a result of which, with effective collaboration with the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development (MMSD), her bureau commenced the privatisation of the core assets of the corporation.

The outstanding functions of the corporation would be transferred to the Mining Cadastre Office while its non-core assets, such as office equipment, motor vehicles and other valuables, besides the landed properties, were being prepared for sale through competitive bidding, she said.

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