Niger has abandoned plans to privatise its electricity co

NIAMEY, March 12: Niger has abandoned plans to privatise its state electricity and fuel distribution companies, following World Bank agreement that reforms undertaken make privatisation unnecessary, Finance and Economy Minister Ali Mahamane Lamine Zeine said.

Niger, one of the world's poorest countries, has been under pressure for over a decade to privatise state industries under reform programmes overseen by foreign donors like the World Bank and its sister institution, the International Monetary Fund.

''What is privatisation for? Better management, a better product for the consumer. So if you have all this, why push people to privatise?'' Lamine Zeine said in a state television broadcast at the weekend.

He said the World Bank had agreed to the abandoning of plans to privatise power utility NIGELEC and fuel importer SONIDEP after the government discussed the likely benefits and drawbacks of privatisation, including the possibility of exchanging a state-controlled monopoly for a privately-owned monopoly.

''The World Bank has supported Niger in abandoning this demand to privatise, and we are also talking to partners to agree a policy much more in the interests of the country,'' Lamine Zeine said.

Niger does not produce oil, and NIGELEC imports 95 percent of its power consumption from neighbouring Nigeria, Africa's top oil producer. Niger has already privatised its water and telecommunications industries.

Niger, a landlocked country stretching from Nigeria's northern border deep into the Sahara, rated bottom of the most recent U.N.

Human Development Index of 177 nations ranked by quality of life.

REUTERS