Govt may dump sale of NITEL
By Sonny Aragba-Akpore
AFTER failing thrice to successfully privatise the Nigerian Telecommunications (NITEL) Limited, the Federal Government seems set to cede the management of the national carrier to Nigerians.
The new arrangement to be carried out under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) may see the Nigerian Communication Satellite (NigComSat) Limited working with private firms to reposition NITEL. The agency will represent the government in the emerging management of NITEL.
Presidency and the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) officials, who spoke on the proposed arrangement, declared that government was no longer convinced that the privatisation was a viable means to revive the organisation. They said the government was not also ready to leave telecommunications solely in the hands of private operators.
The move is reportedly being embarked upon by the government to prevent the rot the delay in finding a core investor could have on the telecommunication's infrastructure.
NigcomSat and the private operators are principally expected to revive NITEL.
The privatisation of the parastatal has hit the brick-wall thrice since 2001.
The Guardian learnt that NigComSat, which has a licence from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to provide last mile services, may be the centre point of activities in the fresh bid to revive NITEL, together with other Nigerians, and some private firms under a typical PPP model.
The government revoked the 51 per cent held by Transnational Corporation (Transcorp) Plc last June 1, and named a technical management board two days after. The board will be inaugurated today.
As a prelude to the realisation of a new NITEL managed as a PPP project, the technical board set up two reconstruction platforms - finance and network.
The two are likely to report to the technical board today after the inauguration.
The thinking in government circle is that since the network reconstruction platform has its secretariat in NigComSat, it should metamorphose into the hub for managing NITEL.
NigComSat has a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) people-oriented network with a pilot scheme roll out in 10 states. It operates on the 450 Megahertz (MHz) Frequency Spectrum.
"Government is uncomfortable to let go entirely on telecommunications involvement. And at the same time, it will not be possible for government to run two commercial telecoms entities, so, the thinking is a fusion of both NITEL and NigComSat," a top Presidency official said.
The new management will ride on NITEL's existing infrastructure to revive the place, and even those aspects that are in a state of comatose will be reactivated to create value for a seamless network, he said.
BPE sources confirmed this position, saying "several meetings were held on how to turn around both NITEL and its sister company, M-Tel."
The technical board of NITEL has Mr. Alkali Mohammed, Permanent Secretary, Information and Communications Ministry as chairman, the Director-General of BPE, Dr. Chris Anyanwu, NigComSat's Managing Director, Ahmed Rufai, Head of Civil Service, Mr. Steve Oronsaye, Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Economic Matters to the Vice President, Mr. Sam Worlu and Ibrahim Kashim of BPE as members.
In 1999, former President Olusegun Obasanjo said of NITEL: "We do not even know the value of what we are going to privatise. We must be open and a proper evaluation must be done before we privatise."
At that time, preliminary estimates put NITEL's value at around $8 billion, based on assessments done by the company and BPE.
Sources said that Transcorp might have been hasty over acquiring NITEL without knowing exactly what to do with it and what state it was before the acquisition.
BPE sources explained that nobody could state what NITEL is worth now, considering that its accounts were never audited since 2006.
For a network that has been down for the past three years, any information memoranda issued for the purpose of sale without powering the network will be misleading. A mandatory technical audit is needed to ascertain the state of the network infrastructure, its workability, repair-ability and serviceability.
Most of the operating softwares have not been upgraded since 2004 and hence vendors need to be contacted to know whether a firm ware upgrade is possible or not. These can only be done when the network is powered," the official said.
He continued: "Considering past failed attempts, must we continue on this path? All the promises of improved services, growth and jobs and wealth creation became a hoax. Monies realised from Transcorp could not even pay the pension buyout not to mention 8,000 workers that lost their jobs and billions of debts incurred. Today, over 150 assets of NITEL are being misappropriated in the name of liquidation. Sell government property for pittance and buy them back through proxies!!
"NITEL has remained a paradox of privatisation, but out of the mess is an opportunity for Nigerians to bail out the entity out of its hopelessness, reposition it and turn it around. It is an acid test to show case the capacity of governance and the Nigerian state and indeed the Nigerian citizens. If Lagos can be affected so positively by a single man called Fashola, then NITEL's dilemma is not insurmountable. It was never a drain-pipe to government. but rather a comfortable reserve that its recourse to in the hours of need. An entity generating over N50 billion a few years back is now a pauper. All the while, it was completely run by Nigerians for Nigerians and the same people can still turn it around. The solution is not privatisation but the right mix of patriotism, purposefulness, focus and political will to what
is right because it is right," he said.
According to him, "today, there is no fax line due to the absence of NITEL from the industry, no fixed line for same reason and indeed no true broadband for lack of NITEL. Mobile lines are misused at the expense of our meagre salary. No difference in calling next door neighbour and long distance call due to the collapse of NITEL. Government must take a serious look at this once prosperous enterprise and carryout a comprehensive anatomy and physiology of the root cause and effects with a view of taking
remedial actions. Simple logic indicates that if the
privatisation has failed once, twice and thrice, it can only be heading for failure the fourth time.
"The present economic meltdown worldwide has not helped matters either. No serious investor will put a kobo in NITEL for now neither did the attempt of Globacom Ltd to annex it and create a super monopoly help matter. The reasonable course is to go back to where we are coming from since we can figure out where we are going to. In this vein, government should rather concentrate in repositioning the enterprise and look for innovative ways of ensuring sound management and best practices."
