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Nigeria Shortlists Two Companies to Buy NITEL, MTEL
[August 05, 2014]

Nigeria Shortlists Two Companies to Buy NITEL, MTEL


(AllAfrica Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Two of the seventeen companies initially listed as bidders of Nigeria's national telecommunication carriers, Nigeria Telecommunication Ltd (NITEL) and its mobile arm, Mtel, have been shortlisted by the federal government.



The two companies which were approved for the issuance of request proposal are Natcom Consortium and Nectar Consortium. Both emerged tops with 90.7 and 90.2 per cent score respectively.

This was disclosed by the Minister of Mines and Steel, Musa Sada, while briefing journalists after the meeting of the National Council of Privatisation, NCP, on Monday. The meeting was chaired by Vice President Namadi Sambo.


Asset up for bid in NITEL are the licences and the spectrum, the nationwide fixed wired networks, the national right of way duct system, the fibre optic transmission backbone, and the CDMA network system. Others are international gateway earth stations, microwave transmission equipment/network and towers, and other core asset.

The asset up for sale in Mtel are the licences and the spectrum, national right of way, the Mtel GSM network including mobile switching centres, base station controllers, base transceiver stations and the general packet radio services. Others are the analog (TACs) system and other core assets.

Also up for sale is the SAT-3 international submarine cable in which NITEL has 6.32 per cent shareholding..

Briefing journalists on the outcome of the Council meeting, Mr. Sada, alongside the Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen, and the Director General of Bureau for Public Enterprises, Benjamin Dikki, said the government is making efforts in the guided liquidation process to ensure that MITEL/Mtel come back with robust network of infrastructure.

Previous efforts to privatise NITEL and Mtel in the past were enmeshed in controversies and eventual termination of contracts.

Copyright Premium Times. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).

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