ABUJA, Dec. 6 (Xinhuanet) -- The Nigerian federal government on Monday issued a new guideline for privatization barring state governments or their agencies from holding majority shares in any company to be privatized.

    State governments or their agencies could, however, own up to 24 percent shares in privatized enterprises, provided that was not the majority stake, or act as partners in the exercise, the National Council on Privatization said at its 39th meeting presided over by Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

    The council also decided to fast track the privatization of the country's four ailing state-run refineries by re-visiting earlier expressions of interest and short-listing prospective bidders.

    The guideline will also ensure that proper environmental impact assessment is done on companies to be privatized while appropriate government agencies will ensure compliance with environmental regulations by the new owners, it said.

    On the fate of workers in companies slated for privatization, the council directed ministers supervising such enterprises to negotiate with them to determine their terminal entitlements with a view to settling them as funds are available.

    Apart from the refineries, the state-owned National Electric Power Authority and the National Fertilizer Co. of Nigeria are among the companies to be privatized, officials said.

    Official statistics show that over 1,000 state-owned companies in Nigeria have been successfully privatized since the country's privatization program began in 1988.

    Officials said that over 500 million US dollars realized from the exercise had been deployed to the provision of enabling environment for business like good road network, power, water and security. Enditem