Fed Govt hands over NITEL/Mtel to NATCOM

The Federal Government yesterday approved the hand over of Nigeria Telecommunications  Limited (NITEL) and its mobile arm, Mtel to NATCOM.

 

National Council on Privatisation (NCP) Technical Committee Deputy Chairman Haruna Sambo,  who spoke after the NCP meeting chaired by Vice President Namadi Sambo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, said the consortium had completed the payment of $252.251million being the cost of the firm’s acquisition.

 

He said: “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 $ 252.251m. Today, at the council meeting, the council approved the handover to NATCOM Consortium, having paid the cost of acquisition.

 

“By this approval, the process has come to a closure 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 (Bureau of Public Enterprises) to hand over the two companies to the bid winner, NATCOM consortium.”

 

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Power, Godknows Igali, said the government had settled the emoluments of 98 per cent of ex-workers of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).

 

He said NCP had directed that remaining cases should be referred to the BPE for settlement.

 

Mines and Steel minister,  Musa Sada, said the council also discussed reforms of the National Parks and the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) with the aim of restructuring the sector and bridging the 17 million housing deficit in the country.

 

He said: “Another area was that of the Federal Housing Authority. Every body knows that we have about 17 million housing deficit in the sector. For us to be able to build and recover this deficit, we must be ingenious in the way we handle the deficit in the country.

 

“There is no country that succeed without the involvement of the private sector. So the policies must be right first. The committee presented reports on how to restructure the housing policy to meet the housing needs.”