NITEL rehabilitation to gulp $1.2NITEL rehabilitation to gulp $1.2 Billion

The new owners of the national telecom carrier, NITEL, has revealed plans to pump over $1.2 billion in rehabilitating the moribund first national operator.

The sum, according to the company, would be spread across different operations like fixed, mobile networks, Sat3 and other services.

The company said the face lift, which will begin with the launch of its services soonest, was to reassure Nigerians that it was prepared to make a complete difference from the several buyers who had bought NITEL but faced difficulties of even taking off.

Director External Affairs of the company, Mr. Osondu Nwokoro, who made the revelations exclusively to Vanguard yesterday, also highlighted why former acquisitions of NITEL ran into murky waters.

He said: “In the previous transactions, the major point of dissonance was around the payment of the price that was determined by Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, for the sale of NITEL.

“In this instance, the transaction fee was duly paid as prescribed in the governing bid process that was published by the BPE.

“Furthermore, the assets sale and purchase agreement that NATCOM signed with BPE, acting on behalf of the National Council on Privatization, NCP, stipulates that the assets acquired must be deployed for the provision of communications services.

“NATCOM is committed to meeting these legal and social obligations towards the government and people of Nigeria.

“To this end, highly experienced staff are being recruited, network roll out plans developed and being implemented, while supply agreements with reputable partners executed.”