The Federal Government of Nigeria has finally handed over NITEL and MTEL facilities to telco firm National Telecommunication Consortium (NATCOM). The company which won bidding right for the ailing privatised company for $252.251 million has completed full payments.
Those who have been alive for a while know the meaning of NITEL and MTEL but for those who still don’t know; the former means Nigerian Telecommunications Limited and the latter means Mobile Telecommunications (the mobile Telephone Arm of NITEL).
At the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) meeting held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja and chaired by the Vice President of Nigeria, Alhaji Namadi Sambo; the Deputy Chairman of NCP Technical committee, Haruna Sambo made this disclosure.
In his words;
“You recall that at the last NCP meeting, approval was made for the financial bid for NITEL/MTEL by the bidder, NATCOM Consortium at the cost of $252.251million. Today, at the council meeting, the council approved the hand over to NATCOM consortium having paid the cost of acquisition.
By this approval, the process has come to a closure and the council has mandated the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) to hand over the two companies to the preferred winner of course after all other outstanding issues are taken care of.”
The fact now remains that the Goodluck Jonathan-led Administration has finally disposed off NITEL for $252.251 million (thats around N50.2 Billion Naira according to current exchange rate) and it is not like we are gonna miss the company anyway.
