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online Nigeria, Norway invest US$2. 8m on local content training pact
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Chinese firms will fail FG on NITEL - ATCON boss
2010.02.23
First Vice President of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Adebayo Banjo, has declared that New Generation, a Chinese consortium that secured the nod of Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE) with $2.2 billion to acquire 75 per cent of the Nigerian Telecommunications outfit (NITEL) and Mobile Telecommunications Limited (M-tel), will disappoint the Federal Government when it mattered most.
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He said the nation's troubled telecommunications outfit was over priced. "I am very sure no company will pay that much for NITEL because it has its lost value. That price is not reasonable."
Banjo spoke during a telephone interview with Daily Independent.
Already, Nigerians, among several controversies trailing the sale of NITEL, have been expressing fears over the technical knowhow of the Chinese consortium, which have no track record in the management of indigenous telecommunications.
Also, a Port Harcourt High Court Judge, Justice Gladys Olotu, who gave an order restraining the Federal Government and BPE from selling the asset of NITEL in Rivers and Bayelsa States on February 11 in an application brought before the court by a telecom firm, Syntel LG Wills Communications Limited, has fixed February 25 as the hearing date for the case.
On Friday, the Federal Government has to make a spirited announcement reconfirming the interest of China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited after the company withdrew its interest as one of conglomerate that won the bid.
The New Generation Telecom Ltd. consists of Unicom, Minerva Group of Dubai and Nigeria's GiCell Wireless Ltd, but Sophia Tso, a Hong Kong-based spokeswoman of Unicom was quoted to have said the China's second-biggest mobile didn't participate in the bid in the media.
Banjo insisted that the involvement of the Federal Government in the management of the NITEL would not help the stability of the company saying, "even one per cent interest of the government is enough to cause political distraction that would hamper its progress.
"The federal government should not be represented there at all on the board of NITEL if we want efficiency because they would only appoint politicians that would not serve in the interest of the company. Can't you see that one the affiliate companies that bided for NITEL is already withdrawing from the deal?"
But the spokesman of BPE, Joseph Anichebe, had countered that the bureau has a letter from China Unicom (Europe) Operations Ltd. confirming its part of a group that bided for NITEL. China Unicom (Europe) is a subsidiary of China Unicom, according to the Beijing-based company's Website. "We are standing by our announcement," Anichebe said.
The ATCON boss said the only viable property NITEL has is the SAT3 which he claimed has drooped value. MTN Nigerian Communications bided N25 million for the SAT 3.
The BPE will formally accept New Generation's offer after the National Council on Privatisation meets to discuss the bid, Anichebe said. Once approved, the group will then be given 10 days to pay 30 per cent of the purchase price.
"Failure to pay that automatically takes them out of the contest and we will revert to the next preferred bidder," he said.
Banjo would not agree with as he argued that "the BPE should not expect the money as they wont get it either they like it or not. That amount is too much for NITEL that doesn't worth it."
A previous attempt in 2006 to sell NITEL was annulled after Transnational Corp (Transcorp), a Lagos-based investment company, failed to comply with sale conditions.
Since that sale, NITEL 500,000 fixed lines in service have dropped to 45,000, its workforce has declined to 2,000 from 12,000 and the company has $500 million of debt, TeleGeography, a Washington-based research company, said last year. NITEL has lost market share to rivals, including MTN Nigeria Ltd., a unit of MTN Group Ltd., Africa's biggest mobile-phone company.
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