Probing the sale of NITEL/Mtel

The recent order by President Muhammadu Buhari for an inquest into the processes leading to the sale of Nigerian Telecommunications (NITEL) and its mobile arm, Mobile Telecommunications (Mtel), by the Goodluck Jonathan administration, in our view, is a welcome development. We support this move and hope that the essence of the inquest, as explained by Tunji Olaopa, permanent secretary, Federal Ministry of Communications Technology, is not to witch-hunt anyone but to really find out how the whole transaction was undertaken so as to know whether Nigeria was short-changed.

We recall that the journey to the privatisation of NITEL and Mtel began in 2001 when the government tried to sell 51 percent equity to Investors International London Limited (IILL) as the strategic core investor.

Eventually, the government, through the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE), initiated a process to transform NITEL to a modern organisation, expose its workers to standard global practices and arm them with new and competitive technologies. This led to a management contract by Pentascope in 2005.

Pentascope, which was partly funded by a consortium of Nigerian banks, acquired 51 percentage of equity in NITEL. It raised the NITEL lines to about 440,000 and took the mobile arm of the company, Mtel, which also competed and won GSM licence same year, to a little over a million lines. The deal snapped no sooner than it took off and government started shopping for another investor.

In July 2006, Transnational Corporation (Transcorp) acquired 51 percent of NITEL for $500 million and allegedly reduced the workforce by 70 percent, disengaging about 7,000 staff out of the 11,000 left by Pentascope. The 440,000 NITEL lines and above 1 million Mtel lines left by Pentascope nosedived to miserable 40,000 and 200,000 lines, respectively, under Transcorp. In November 2006, the Federal Government then voided the sale of NITEL to Transcorp and appointed a technical board to manage the carrier.

The National Council on Privatisation (NCP), at its meeting of February 27, 2012, approved the privatisation of NITEL and Mtel through “guided liquidation”. The meeting was presided over by former Vice-President Namadi Sambo. BPE later announced fresh acquisition of the national carrier by a consortium of seven Nigerian companies, known as NATCOM, after several failed attempts. The consortium paid the sum of $252 million, an amount said to have met the BPE’s bid price. NATCOM has as members NATSPACE Telecommunication Investment Limited, PCCW Global Limited, Prime Union Investment Limited, Olutoyi Estate Development & Services Limited, Legal Resources Alliance & Co., Sahara Energy Resources Limited, and LM Ericsson Nigeria Limited.

Benjamin Dikki, director-general of PBE, explained that the privatisation process was a guided liquidation that would help bring back the two entities which had been prostrate for more than two decades.

But in all of these, regard for transparency seems to have been very limited. This is why we support the probe. We, however, call for transparency in the process without any attempt, whether implied or direct, to witch-hunt anyone. We also urge government to deal decisively with any individual or group found to have short-changed the country in the sale process and, if the need arises, not to relent in effecting a policy reversal.

Importantly too, we call on government, through its relevant agencies, to go beyond the probe and ensure that all outstanding pensions and retirement benefits of former NITEL/Mtel staff are promptly settled.