NITEL Liquidation: BPE Awaits Further Directive

The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) is awaiting further directive from the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) to begin the liquidation of NITEL, Mr Chukwuma Nwokoh, the spokesman of the organisation, has said.

Nwokoh made this known in a telephone interview on Tuesday in Abuja.

NCP, the body responsible for the sale of government owned companies, is headed by Vice President Namadi Sambo.

We recalled that in March, the Federal Government approved the adoption of “guided liquidation process” for the ailing NITEL and Mtel, its mobile subsidiary.

However, that process hit a brick-wall following an order by the Senate Committee on Privatisation to the NCP and the privatisation agency to halt the liquidation process.

Nwokoh said that BPE had responded to some queries raised by the committee, including providing detailed information on the current debt profile of the telecommunications firm.

He, however, did not provide information on the current value of NITEL, but said the current debt profile was about N350 billion, while some organisations, especially government parastatal agencies were, owing it N35 billion.

Prof. Sylvester Monye, a presidential aide, was quoted as saying last week that “the liabilities of NITEL had gone so bad that nobody wants to buy it”.

Monye, who is the Special Adviser to the President on Performance, Monitoring and Evaluation, spoke at a one-day forum in Abuja organized by the Nigeria Institute of Advanced Legal Studies.

“The liability and the mess in the company have gone so bad that no amount of money can pay for the mess; that is why we have gone for “controlled and managed’ liquidation,” he said.

Several attempts by the BPE to get prospective core investors to take over the ailing NITEL and Mtel since the privatization exercise began 10 years ago, have failed.