NATCOM Invests $1 Billion In NITEL, Begins Operations In March

NATCOM Development and Investment Limited, new owners of Nigerian Telecommunication Limited (NITEL) and its sister company, Mobile Telecommunication Limited (Mtel), said it has spent about $1 billion to revive the moribund national carrier, Footprint to Africa reports.
Chairman of NATCOM, Mr. Olatunde Ayeni, said that the funds and other efforts would see the company roll out its mobile lines, and 4G/LTE services for broadband users and engage 4,000 employees across the country by March.
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 said 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 Request for Proposal (RFP).”
He said 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, he said 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.
NATCOM Development and Investment Limited,has re-branded the name of the company, Footprint to Africa learnt from Nitel and Mtel to Ntel. [myad]