Enugu, Zinox Disagree Over Internet Contract

Enugu State Government and Zinox Technologies Limited have disagreed over the city wi-fi wireless internet service for Enugu, the capital city. While the government has commenced court action against Zinox on allegation that the company failed to deliver according to the contract terms.

Secretary to the State Government, Mr Martin Ilo, according to a statement from the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr Dan Nwomeh, accused the company of a shoddy job, saying it did not deliver what it promised after the sum of N200 million was paid.

But the chief operating officer of Zinox, Mr Theophilus Nweke said the company never received N200 million from Enugu State government.

Ilo said instead of the cloud internet coverage of four kilometers radius of the city centre involving the installation of many base stations as speficified in the contract agreement, what the company implemented was merely hot spots which work only around the few available base stations.

“There are two major issues. First the range of the base station, is too short and very susceptible to obstacle, such that even where the mast exists, it works only within a limited range, best outside,” he further explained.

The government scribe also said that the internet service is not uniformly available, a situation that has security implication as many youths now cluster around the few functioning masts with their laptops, causing anxiety in some peaceful neighbouhoods.

“The venture has clearly failed, and that being the situation, we must have the money paid back into the state treasury.

We can’t tell our people, the people of Enugu State, that we expended such an amount of their money on a failed project, and are keeping quiet about it, we aren’t known for that,” he said.

However, Zinox in a statement made available to The Tide Monday said as far as their records show, the government paid only N157,000,000 as part of its 80% equity in a joint venture. The telecom company said that it contributed its 20% to the joint venture. “It was not contract awarded by Enugu State Government to Zinox Telecom.

“This was paid after the devaluation of the naira for a partnership signed and sealed before the devaluation. Also as it is today, we are not in court with Enugu State Government and have not been served any court summons for whatever reason. Enugu State Government drafted the joint venture agreement and we believe they ought to know the process to follow,” Nweke said in the statement.