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BPE, core investor sign NITEL assets sale agreement

By on December 26, 2014

The Bureau of Public Enterprises has signed an Assets Sale Agreement with the preferred bidder for the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited, the NATCOM Consortium.

In a statement issued in Abuja on Wednesday, the Head of Public Communications, BPE, Mr. Chgbo Anichebe, said the agreement was signed by the two parties in Abuja on Monday.

Anichebe said the Chairman, NATCOM Consortium, Dr. Olatunde Ayeni, pledged to turn around the moribund telecoms conglomerate in the shortest possible time to bring it back its lost glory.

Ayeni, at the ceremony, which also marked the issuance of Letter of Offer to the preferred bidder by the BPE, said NITEL still had the potential to be the national carrier.

He said the consortium had the wherewithal to revamp NITEL and its mobile subsidiary, the Nigerian Mobile Telecommunications Limited, to become the biggest and leading telecommunications outfit in the country and that with the signing of the transaction documents, the process of revamping the organisation had begun.

Ayeni recalled the previous failed attempts to sell the enterprise and maintained that the current effort would not be in vain as the NATCOM Consortium was determined to break the jinx.

He said, “We pledge to make NITEL/M-Tel to come alive again to the delight of the BPE that had unsuccessfully in the past tried to sell the enterprise, and to the good of Nigerians who will be employed and afforded another service provider in the telecoms market.

“The BPE is, indeed, one of the few government agencies in Nigeria that are transparent, meticulous and execute their assignments diligently.”

The Director-General, BPE, Mr. Benjamin Dikki, said that given the zeal and calibre of persons on the consortium that won the bid, he was confident that NATCOM would pay the bid price and make NITEL/M-Tel work again.

“I believe we have the right group to turn around NITEL/M-Tel and we believe without any doubt in their ability to turn around the fortunes of NITEL,” Dikki said.

The BPE boss said the transaction had undergone a full circle with ratification and approval by the National Council on Privatisation and that what was remaining now was for the preferred bidder to pay up and take possession.

He warned the preferred bidder that signing of the Assets Sale Agreement did not in any way confer ownership of the telecoms firm on the consortium; adding that only the full payment of the bid consideration would grant it access to the assets.

Also speaking, the Liquidator for NITEL/M-Tel, Otunba Olutola Senbore, noted that though the task was daunting, with the cooperation of all stakeholders, the transaction was successful.

Following the disqualification of NETTAG Consortium as a result of its failure to provide a bid bond together, only the financial bid of NATCOM Consortium qualified for opening on December 3.

 

[Punch]