Is the BBC a parastatal?

Interesting word today, parastatals. Even more interesting I found this word in a piece of spam I received at work. Of course the spam was from Nigeria. The spam was trying to get me to do business with them by bragging, "We do business with Mobil Nigeria and other parastatals." I figured parastatals was a typo but they I decided to look it up. To my surprise it is both a noun and adjective. As an adjective it describes a business or organization that is owned or controlled by the state. As a noun it is the business or organization owned or controlled by the state.

I could only find this definition at dictionary.com so I must conclude it is a newer word. I also noticed my Google search produced a lot of links to African nation websites. I think parastatal must be a very regional word almost unique to African nations. I know most western nations don't have nearly as many government administered organization and the emerging world but I have never heard of Amtrak, the BBC or Telmex referred to as a parastatal.

Here is the complete email:

Dear Scott,
We are a registered company in Nigeria and saw your advertorial in the November 2004 offshore magazine. We do business with Mobil Nigeria and other parastatals.
We'd like to know the modalities this resellers option of your product would like here in Nigeria.
What are your requirements.
Thank you and have a nice day.  

Note: We did not run any advetorials (a portmanteau). And I don't usually read my spam. I don't know why I read this one.