The federal government of Nigeria has handed over control of the Nigerian Telecommunication Plc (NITEL) and Nigerian Mobile Telecommunications (MTEL) to a core investor, NATCOM Consortium, the local Leadership newspaper reports.
The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) handed over instruments of ownership and licences of operation to Mr. Tunde Ayeni, chairman of the NATCOM Consortium.
After several attempts to privatize the telco, the NITEL’s asset sold for $252.25 million to NACOM in a bid that opened December of last year. Leadership reported that Investors International London Limited (IILL) tried to purchase 51 per cent of the assets in 2001, followed by a failed management contract by the Pentascope in 2002. A bid from Orascom Telecoms in 2005 was aborted and the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) revoked sales of the NITEL & MTEL to Transcorp in 2009 after it had injected a working capital.
