• Orders memorandum from ministry
From JULIANA TAIWO-OBALONYE, Abuja
President Muhammadu Buhari may be revisiting the liquidation process of Nigerian Telecommunication Limited (NITEL) and its subsidiary, Mobile Telecommunication Ltd (MTEL) when he ordered the Ministry of Communication Technology to prepare a memo on the exercise.
This, Permanent Secretary, Tunji Olaopa, who briefed State House correspondents after briefing the President of the a ministry’s activities and challenges, said yesterday that though Buhari was not against privatisation, he wants to ascertain Nigerians were not shortchanged in the liquidation done by the Jonathan administration.
The National Council on Privatisation (NCP) had on April 26 this year directed the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) to hand over NITEL/MTEL to NATCOM Consortium, at a meeting chaired by former Vice President Namadi Sambo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The NCP’s Deputy Chairman Technical Committee on Privatisation, Haruna Sambo, disclosed this to the Press after the meeting.
Sambo had explained that the directive was given because the preferred bidder had paid the total cost of acquisition of the companies.
He said then, “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 $ 252.251 million.
“Today (April 26) 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 close and the council has mandated the BPE to hand over the two companies to the preferred winner, of course, after all other outstanding issues are taken care of.
“With this, the transaction has come to an end and council asks the BPE to hand over the two companies to the bid winner, NATCOM Consortium.”
But briefing reporters in Abuja yesterday, Mr. Olaopa said: “The President was concerned about the liquidation of NITEL.
“He is not opposed to its privatisation, but he wants to know and he wants us to bring a memo on how the whole transaction was undertaken so that he would know whether Nigeria was shortchanged.”
The permanent secretary said Buhari also raised concerns over the quality of service being offered by telecommunication firms.
Olaopa said his ministry explained to the President some of the problems responsible for the poor service which include multiple taxation and right of way.
He expressed confidence that President Buhari would intervene in the situation to ensure that Nigerians get value for money.
He said: “The President was concerned by the quality of service of telecommunication operators.
“The President is very concerned about the whole issue of privatisation that is hindering the investments in ICT infrastructure and that he will personally champion this.
“The President talked about the potentials of the ICT sector in generating employment.”