NATCOM Development and Investment Limited, new owners of Nigerian
Telecommunication Limited (NITEL) and its sister company, Mobile
Telecommunication Limited (Mtel), has reportedly spent about $1 billion
to revive the beleaguered national carrier.
Mr. Olatunde Ayeni,
chairman of NATCOM, said that the funds and other efforts would see the
company engage 4,000 employees by March, as it sets to roll out its
mobile lines, and 4G/LTE services for broadband users.
Ayeni told
House of Representatives Joint Committees on Communication and
Privatisation, that his company would begin a phased rollout from Abuja,
Lagos and Port Harcourt before expanding to other parts of the country.
He
disclosed that the initial financial bid was increased to $252.251
million from $221 million when juxtaposed with the liquidator's reserved
price of $256 million.
NATCOM acquired assets and licences of
NITEL and MTEL, percentage interest held in South-Atlantic 3 (SAT-3)
consortium, and identifiable assets capable of generating viable
business units.
"NATCOM's full submission was duly made to
NITEL/MTEL's liquidator and Nigeria's Bureau of Public Enterprises on
November 7, 2014. NATCOM's submission was accompanied by a bid bond in
the amount of $10 million as stipulated in the liquidator's RFP," he
said.
He disclosed that $10 million had been spent on SAT-3
system, quarterly dues to the consortium, system expansion and upgrade
since the acquisition, adding that the Nigerian Communications
Commission (NCC) had assigned another set of microwave frequency ranges
to NATCOM upon request for N176.8 million, computed on the basis of 800
bases station network in the first instance.
NATCOM was requested
to pay an additional N6.6 billion to bridge the shortfall of the value
of the Naira to the Dollar from N168 to N197, after the payment of the
first installment of 30 per cent of the bid price within 14 days of
approval by the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) and balance
within the 90 days, Ayeni said.
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