Buhari to probe privatisation of NITEL

President Muhammadu Buhari is set to probe the recent privatization process of the Nigeria Telecommunications Limited (NITEL).
The probe, it was learnt, is to ascertain whether or not the country was short-changed in the process of being sold to private companies.
The privatisation process of NITEL and MTEL was completed in April 2015 after the financial bid was opened in October 2014, under the President Goodluck Jonathan led administration.
The Federal Government had through the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) and the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) handed over the assets of the Nigerian Telecommunications (NITEL) and its mobile arm, Mobile Telecommunications (MTEL) to NATCOM Consortium.
NATCOM became the preferred bidder for NITEL and MTEL following the disqualification of NETTAG Consortium as a result of its failure to submit a bid bond with its technical proposal. Upon full payment of the purchase consideration of $252,221,000 ahead of the April deadline and presentation of certificates to NATCOM, the company is therefore expected to begin to roll out telecommunication services.
Fielding questions from journalists after taking turn to brief the president on the activities of the Ministry of Communications, Tunji Olaopa said the president requested for a memo on the whole transaction.
“The president was also concerned about the liquidation of NITEL. He is not opposed to its privatisation but he wants to know and he want us to bring a memo on how the whole transaction was undertaken so that he would know whether Nigeria was shortchanged”, he said.
Olaopa said the president was very concerned about the whole issue of privatisation that is hindering the investments in ICT infrastructure and said “that he will personally champion this. The president talked about the potentials of the ICT sector in generating employment”.
He added that the president was also concerned about the quality of service of telecom operators in the country.