CC Image courtesy of Nicolas Raymond on Flickr.
Nigeria’s Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) has revealed the total liability of moribund former national telecoms company Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) and its mobile communications arm M-TEL is valued at US$3 billion.
BPE’s director general Benjamin Dikki stated this while presenting BPE’s approved work plan for 2013 to the Senate Committee on Privatization.
He however noted that the real value of both companies is yet to be determined because a validation process has not taken place. This he said would cost about NGN160 billion (US$991.3 million).
However, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Privatization, Senator Olugbenga Obadara, said the committee is still not in support of BPE’s proposed guided liquidation of NITEL/M-TEL. According to the lawmaker, the move if approved would further kill the company.
“It will be difficult for the senate to rescind our decisions. We have said guided liquidation or you taking it to the court to liquidate it, means you killed it,” he said.
“You want to liquidate such a company, my people, I cannot explain it. The right of way which NITEL has is huge, and you want to liquidate such. And we are talking of more than 5,000 properties in Nigeria and many others and you want to liquidate such.”
