Despite moves by certain
interests in the political circle to acquire the assets of NITEL and its subsidiary,
Mtel, facts emerged that Federal Government still generated the sum of N101.38 billion
from the facility of Nigeria Telecommunication Limited (NITEL) which has been
in comatose since 2006.
The lawmakers who
frowned at the unsuccessful privatisation of the two telecoms companies noted that
the proposed sale of NITEL to New Generation at $2.5 billion was stalled
because the company was a portfolio entity
with no link with United Arab Emirate as claimed by Nigerian officials adding
that the issue was a national embarrassment to Nigeria.
In a swift reaction, members
of the joint committee queried BPE over
the N172 billion differential in the
debt profile compiled by
both parties, just as they expressed
concern over the unsuccessful six privatisation exercise conducted by BPE.
On her part, Khadijat
Bukar Ibrahim, chairman of the committee said "I see no reason why Federal
Government cannot put money into NITEL and Mtel and resuscitate it."
From the sum of
$3,668,561.70 was generated from Sat-3 submarine cable, $2,855,091.81 remitted
in the domiciliary account, $521,990 generated from British Telecoms, $290,230
from cable and wireless services while $1,249.84 was realised from interest.
Bolanle Onagoruwa,
director general of Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) gave the hint at the opening
of the two-day investigative public hearing on the operational activities of
Mtel/NITEL present management board; present status of its investment as well
as revenue generation from ongoing service rendered to other telecommunication
companies in Nigeria held by the joint House privatisation, finance, communications,
public procurement and information technology.
She however noted that
National Council on Privatisation (NCP) is favourable disposed to adopting
'guided liquidation' against the injection of $1 billion for the re-activation
of the two telecoms companies as alternatives.
In her presentation,
Onagoruwa argued that the debt profile stood at N354 billion, while IIlyasu-
Sa'ab put the total debt
profile at N182 billion out of which NITEL owed N79 billion while Mtel owed
N103 billion, stressing that NITEL has no knowledge of the additional N172
billion debt.
She disclosed that the
sum of $3,668,561.70 was generated from Sat-3 submarine cable, $2,855,091.81
remitted in the domiciliary account, $521,990 generated from British Telecoms, $290,230
from cable and wireless services while $1,249.84 was realised from interest.
According to her, the
companies liabilities include N65,227,595,681 on equipment vendors; N81,711,196,994
on bank claims; N183,403,439,256 for government agencies and N24,504,836,126 for
others.
She added that Federal
Government raised the sum of N68,248,884,000 through Debt Management Office
(DMO) to offset outstanding salaries totaling N54.2 billion leaving a debt profile
at N122,448,884,000 with Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).
Speaking earlier,
Illyasu-Sa'ad disclosed that the company generated the sum of $5 million is required
to maintain Sat-3 yearly, noting that no core investor can take possession of
the 7.33 percent share of Sat-3/WASC/SAFE as stated in the agreement signed by
the 33 member states, adding that only member state can acquire the share.
She explained that the
implementation of some of the expansion programmes was stalled by the privatization
exercise, adding that Mtel had 1.4 million subscriber capacity and national geographical
11.57 percent as at 2006, as well as 566 base transceiver stations but noted
that Mtel has lost its market share of Mtel.
She disclosed that Mtel
is owing banks, contractors and interconnect to the tune of N79 billion and N45 billion owed by
ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).
Other operational
challenges include 'Sale of critical core assets of company like the NECOM house,
lease office accomm and sale of NITEL headquarters, Stolen and vadalised
equipment, all technical personnel long exited, integration challenges due to
multi-vendor, huge debt liability worth N103 billion arising from uncompleted
projects, zero revenue in the last five years due to non-operation as well as
lack of insurance cover for equipment inspite of case of vandalisation.
.jpeg)
0 comments:
Post a Comment