The Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) has given the go ahead to three companies interested in bidding for the defunct Nigerian national telecoms company NITEL and its mobile arm MTEL, despite opposition from lawmakers.
HumanIPO reported yesterday members of the Nigerian Senate voiced their dissatisfaction with the liquidation of NITEL.
In a statement, Chigbo Anichebe, head of public communications at the BPE, said the bureau had received Expressions of Interests from 35 companies but only three scored 75 per cent or more in their technical proposals.
He added that the successful liquidators will now be invited to make a financial bid following their approval by the National Council on Privatization (NCP), which must also approve the winning bid.
“Council has in this regard, adopted the principle of continuing due diligence on all the prequalified bidders. Consequently any bidder found to have made representations that cannot be corroborated or create doubt about their financial/technical capability will be subject to disqualification,” Anichebe said in the statement.
They believe instead of liquidating the company, there should be a concession to rescue the country’s former national telecoms company.
