The National Council on Privatisation (NCP), a body that oversees privatization programmes such as the power privatization last October, has authorised the sale of the liquidated Nigeria Telecommunication PLC and its subsidiary, MTEL to NATCOM Conglomerate for $252 million. The approval event took place in Nigeria’s presidential villa, Abuja, on Thursday.
NATCOM had emerged the preferred bidder for the assets of the Nigerian Telecommunication PLC and Nigerian Mobile Telecommunication, though it had an initial $221 million bid earlier rejected by the Nigerian government. This was later reviewed upwards to $252 million before it was accepted.
Mrs Omobola Johnson, Nigeria’s Minister of Communications Technology, believes the privatisation signals the last lap for the telecom sector reformation. “The privatisation of NITEL and MTEL is the final step in the reform of the telecoms sector,” she said. An initial attempt to privatize the company in March proved unsuccessful.
Omobola Johnson, in a report carried by ThisDay, however assured Nigerians that the government will continue to review and fine-tune policies that spur a progressive environment for a developed private sector-driven telecommunication industry.
