Nitel, Nigeria’s crippled public telecom provider which has been in the open market but without buyer for over a decade is still not looking good even as the Bureau of Public Enterprises, (BPE), the agency charged with responsibility to auction it has denied placing a $105 million price tag, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek can report. This came on the heels of the query by House of Representatives on the liquidation process of Nitel and its mobile subsidiary, Mtel following reports that auction price tag of $105million has been placed on the beleaguered carrier. Hon. Tajudeen Yusuf, PDP, Kogi had raised a point of order on the floor of the House under ‘matter of urgent public importance.’ He stated that the $105m price tag on the beleaguered public enterprise was grossly undervalued and wants a halt on the process. The law maker was piqued that in a country where 3G licenses were auctioned for $450million and initial 2G GSM licenses were auctioned for $250million, it was unthinkable that a national asset as Nitel/Mtel would go for a lowly sum of $105million. “If a GSM license is being obtained for $450milion, how can both the NITEL and Mtel, including their assets and infrastructures be placed on $105million?” queried Hon. Yusuf. Chukwuma Nwokoh, spokesman of BPE however told Nigeria CommunicationsWeek that the House members were not fully informed of the liquidation process of both firms. He stated that two committees – technical and legal – were working on the final draft process for their liquidation. “The National Council on Privatisation (NCP) at its first meeting in 2012 which was held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Monday, February 27, 2012 mandated its two committees – the Technical Committee (TC) and Legal Committee (LC), to determine the modalities for handling Nitel/Mtel’s guided liquidation,” said Nwokoh. He added that besides having not completed their assignment, both the NCP and BPE were yet to appoint a liquidator for the public enterprises. The liquidator would have the authority to fix price tag on both telecom firms. “A liquidator has not been appointed for NITEL to determine the real value of the telecoms organization. We are therefore, at a loss as how the price tag of $105m came about and who gave its approval,” said Nwokoh. Nigeria CommunicationsWeek findings in Abuja showed that the BPE does not take decisions without approval from its supervising agency, NCP. It would therefore be unthinkable that it should take a decision on the NITEL/Mtel final liquidation process.
Why Nitel Cannot Be Sold for $105m – BPE
