FG Hands over Nitel/Mtel to NATCOM

National Council on Privatisation Technical Committee

The federal government on Thursday approved the handover of Nitel/Mtel facilities to NATCOM consortium, having completed the payment of $252.251 million cost of acquisition.

Deputy Chairman, National Council on Privatisation Technical Committee, Haruna Sambo, made the disclosure after the NCP meeting at the presidential villa.

“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 hand over 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 BPP to hand over the two companies to the bid winner, NATCOM consortium,” Sambo said
Permanent Secretary, Minister of Power, Godknows Igali, who also spoke, told journalists that government had settled about 98 per cent of ex-PHCN workers including their pensions and gratuities, directing that any remaining case should be referred to the BPE for settlements.

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

According to Sada, “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 succeeds 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.”