Spokesperson for the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE), Joseph Anichebe, has said that Nigeria’s second national operator (SNO) Globacom expressed an interest in buying ailing incumbent telco NITEL, local paper This Day reports. The news follows the announcement that the Nigerian state revoked the sale of a 51% stake in NITEL to local company Transcorp earlier in the week.
Globacom was awarded Nigeria’s SNO licence in August 2002, allowing it to operate services in all of the country’s telecoms arenas. It launched GSM services under the banner Glo Mobile in August 2003 and quickly became the fastest growing mobile operator in the country, claiming 16 million customers by the end of 2008.
Industry players have raised fears that Globacom’s acquisition of NITEL would amount to the creation of a monopoly in the telecommunications sector, and that Globacom would end up with two SNO licenses.
ITNewsAfrica.com
