Nitel: Presidential Directive Excites Consortium
- By Simeon Ogoegbulem
- Published October 26th, 2010
- News
- Unrated
AN air of excitement has pervaded the camp of New Generation Consortium following the directive from President Goodluck Jonathan to the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) to conclude the privatisation of Nigerian Telecommunications Ltd (Nitel) and M’tel, its mobile arm. New Generation Consortium had last February, emerged the preferred bidder in yet another attempt by BPE to offload the comatose pioneer national telecom carrier.
The Consortium had bided to acquire Nitel and it mobile arm with the sum of $2.5 billion (about N375 billion). The process was later suspended following allegations that during the opening of financial bids for the privatisation of NITEL and M-TEL which was held on February 16, 2010 in Abuja.
In this regard, the President has approved that New Generation Telecommunications Consortium, pay a bid security of $750 million as a pre-condition for the issuance of an offer letter in its bid to acquire NITEL and M-TEL. In accordance with the provisions of the Requests for Proposal (RFP), the bid security sum is to be paid within ten calendar days from the date of issue of a demand letter from the BPE. The balance of the bid amount of $1, 750 million should be paid within sixty days from the date of the issue of an offer letter.
The National Council on Privatisation (NCP) had at its meeting of March 12, 2010 set up an eight-member ad-hoc committee under the chairmanship of the Attorney-General of the Federation to review the NITEL/ M-TEL sale transaction. The Committee found out that the transaction complied strictly with due process as outlined in the BPE’s Procedures Manual and that necessary approvals were obtained through the Technical Committee (TC) and the NCP at every stage of the transaction. President Jonathan also approved that staff entitlements and outstanding salaries of all employees of NITEL/M-TEL be paid.
The Consortium had bided to acquire Nitel and it mobile arm with the sum of $2.5 billion (about N375 billion). The process was later suspended following allegations that during the opening of financial bids for the privatisation of NITEL and M-TEL which was held on February 16, 2010 in Abuja.
In this regard, the President has approved that New Generation Telecommunications Consortium, pay a bid security of $750 million as a pre-condition for the issuance of an offer letter in its bid to acquire NITEL and M-TEL. In accordance with the provisions of the Requests for Proposal (RFP), the bid security sum is to be paid within ten calendar days from the date of issue of a demand letter from the BPE. The balance of the bid amount of $1, 750 million should be paid within sixty days from the date of the issue of an offer letter.
The National Council on Privatisation (NCP) had at its meeting of March 12, 2010 set up an eight-member ad-hoc committee under the chairmanship of the Attorney-General of the Federation to review the NITEL/ M-TEL sale transaction. The Committee found out that the transaction complied strictly with due process as outlined in the BPE’s Procedures Manual and that necessary approvals were obtained through the Technical Committee (TC) and the NCP at every stage of the transaction. President Jonathan also approved that staff entitlements and outstanding salaries of all employees of NITEL/M-TEL be paid.
