By Onu Okorie

President-elect of the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry ACCI, Adesoji Adesugba, has urged the Federal Government to draw lessons from Singapore’s Temasek model in restructuring and reviving Nigeria’s struggling state-owned enterprises.
Adesugba, who is also the National Vice President of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), said Nigeria could strengthen existing institutions and separate government’s ownership and oversight responsibilities from the day-to-day management of commercial enterprises.
He spoke in an interview on Thursday in Abuja while outlining strategies for reviving moribund and underperforming public enterprises.
According to him, the Temasek model demonstrates how governments can retain ownership of commercial assets while allowing professionally managed enterprises to operate according to clear performance standards, accountability requirements and commercial principles.
He said Nigeria should avoid simply copying foreign models but should adapt useful principles from successful Asian economies to its own institutional and economic realities.
“Credible regulation, sustained political commitment, and the honest partnership of the private sector, which, applied with our own discernment, can restore enterprises to productive life,” he said.
Lessons From Malaysia, China
Adesugba also cited Malaysia’s government-linked company reforms as an example Nigeria could study.
He said Malaysia improved the performance of state-linked enterprises through the use of measurable performance indicators, board restructuring and long-term turnaround strategies.
Such reforms, he added, helped strengthen corporate governance and institutional accountability while improving the commercial performance of government-linked companies.
The development economist also pointed to China’s mixed-ownership reforms, which he said demonstrated how private investors could strengthen corporate oversight when given meaningful representation and incentives to monitor management.
He said China’s experience showed the value of pragmatism, with the country retaining state ownership in strategic sectors while allowing private participation where appropriate.
For Nigeria, he identified professional management, hard budget constraints, credible regulation and private-sector collaboration as key lessons from the Asian experiences.
He said the government’s role should ultimately be that of an enabling shareholder and impartial regulator rather than an operator directly involved in the daily running of commercial enterprises.
PPPs Could Provide Capital, Expertise
Adesugba advocated carefully structured public-private partnerships, concessions and mixed-ownership arrangements as possible mechanisms for injecting capital, technology, managerial expertise and market access into struggling state enterprises.
He, however, warned that partnerships would succeed only where transactions were transparently structured and investors possessed adequate financial resources, technical competence and managerial capacity.
“Credible regulation and viable revenue models are essential to attract genuine investors and ensure sustainable operations,” he said, stressing that reforms must be anchored on transparency, accountability and sound governance.
He cautioned against awarding public assets to investors who lacked the financial strength or technical expertise required to recapitalise and efficiently manage them.
Telecoms Reform as Success Story
Adesugba cited Nigeria’s telecommunications sector as an example of how private-sector participation could transform a struggling industry.
He noted that following the decline of NITEL, private operators invested substantially in the sector, resulting in significant improvements in telecommunications services and market development.