FG hands over Nitel/Mtel to NATCOM

The federal government on Thursday approved the handover of Nitel/Mtel facilities to NATCOM.

Deputy Chairman, National Council on Privatization (NCP) Technical Committee, Haruna Sambo, made the disclosure after the NCP meeting chaired by Vice President Namadi Sambo at the Presidential Villa.

According to him, the consortium have completed the payment of $252.251m cost of acquisition.

He said: “You recall that at the last NCP meeting, approval was made for the financial bid for NITEL/MTEL by the bidder, NATCOM consortium at the cost of $ 252.251M. Today, at the council meeting, the council approved the hand over to NATCOM consortium having paid the cost of acquisition.

“By this approval, the process has come to a closure and the council has mandated the BPE to hand over the two companies to the preferred winner of course after all other outstanding issues are taken care of.

“With this, the transaction has come to an end and Council asks BPP to hand over the two companies to the bid winner, NATCOM consortium,” he said

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Power, Godknows Igali, told State House correspondents  that government had settled about 98 per cent of ex-PHCN workers including their pensions and gratuities.

He said that NCP has directed that any other remaining cases should be referred to the BPE for settlements.

Mines and Steel minister, Engr. Musa Sada, said the council also discussed reforms of the National Parks as well as the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) with the aim of restructuring the sector and bridge the 17 million housing deficit in the country.

He said: “Another area was that of the Federal Housing Authority. Everybody knows that we have about 17 million housing deficit in the sector. For us to be able to build and recover this deficit, we must be ingenious in the way we handle the deficit in the country.”

“There is no country that succeeds without the involvement of the private sector. So the policies must be right first. The committee presented reports on how to restructure the housing policy to meet the housing needs,” he stated