Nigeria’s Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo has promised to assist Ecobank Plc recover its N11.7 billion which Nigeria Telecommunications (Nitel) Plc owed the bank. The money was loaned to Nitel in 2006 to acquire equipment for its operation as a national carrier.
Sambo made the promise when the management of the bank paid him a courtesy visit at the State House, Abuja. He said “the case of Nitel/Mtel is a very unfortunate development; ordinarily it is a company that should be doing well because if the private sector should come and do one of the most viable businesses in this sector, I see no reason why even with the support from a bank like Ecobank, the company still failed.”
He reiterated the federal government’s determination to sell the company, adding that Nitel-Mtel is undergoing the process of privatisation and as soon as this is consummated, government would offset the huge indebtedness incurred by the company.
Sambo assured the bank that he will discuss the issue with President Goodluck Jonathan as well as meet with the minister of finance and director general of Bureau of Public Enterprises “on the need to clear all indebtedness.”
Assuring the chairman of the bank that government is making everything possible to discourage the recurrence of this type of situation; the vice president commended the bank for participating in infrastructure development in the country. 
He stated that government is doing all it can to provide enabling environment for banks to participate in infrastructure development, as according to him “we cannot have a country where banks cannot assist in business development as government is trying to fix the power sector since the life of every other sector is dependent on the availability of electricity.”
Speaking earlier, Dr. Sunny Kuku, chairman of the bank, said he was in the State House to request the intervention of the federal government to liquidate the indebtedness which Nitel and Mtel owed the bank.  Kuku said the loan was given to the company in 2006 to acquire equipment to continue in telephone operation as a national carrier.   He lamented that as at December 2010, the total amount which the company has to pay is N11.7 billion and this has affected the bank and the bank’s auditors have cautioned that it should not be treated as bad debt.
Kuku said the loan was to be offset initially by the cash flow that would come from the installation of the equipment which was to be used by Lagos zone.  According to Kuku, what made the bank to come for federal government’s assistance was that the Bureau of Public Enterprises had issued a letter stating that the matter now is to be treated as a federal government’s instrument. He also disclosed that Ecobank Transnational is owned by Ecowas countries and is located in about 30 countries in Africa and helps in continental money transfer.