Nigeria terminates sale of NITEL to Transcorp

Christopher Anyanwu the Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), has announced the withdrawal of the sale of 51 percent equity of Nigeria Telecommunications Plc (NITEL) to Transnational Corporation (TRANSCORP).

Anyanwu said the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) took the decision based on the fact that Transcorp did not fulfill certain aspects of the agreement as predicated on the conditions that gave birth to the privatization of Nitel as a growing concern.

“You will recall that Transcorp was to engage a technical operator as partner, they engaged the British Telecommunications (BT) and barely a few months on, BT opted out.
“Transcorp undertook to inject N8.9 billion to address liquidity problem in Nitel, but they could not do so, interconnectivity debt of N17 billion still hangs unpaid, Transcorp undertook to pay up staff, but 11 months of salaries arrears have not yet been paid.
“The former Core investor agreed to maintain both NITEL and Mtel as a going concern and improve on its market share value, but today, Mtel is virtually dead,” he stated.
Mr. Joseph Anichebe, spokesperson for the Bureau of Public Enterprises, added that part of the agreement was for “Trancorp to inject ₦8.9billion within its first 100 days of assuming control of Nigerian Telecommunications, and pay about 11 months arrears owed staff. But Transcorp failed to meet all these agreements”.

Since 2001, Nitel has seen its number of fixed lines plunge from more than 500,000 to about 100,000 and it has been difficult to find new investors for the company because of its huge debt portfolio and deteriorating infrastructure.

ITNewsAfrica.com