Geneva — The new communications minister, Dr. Obafemi Anibaba revealed this in an address to the 'Connecting Rural Communities Africa 2006' conference in Abuja-Nigeria. This is coming at the time when the government of Nigeria says it is ready for the take off of the second phase of the project. The second phase to be handled by three Chinese firms would attract a total of $300 million, which is equal to $100m per participating company.

He stressed that why the government is keen about the project was the realisation that it would amount to being on the right path of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Currently, he said, that some of the initial project has reached appreciable stage of conclusion.

He also attributed the development to the enabling environment created by the current administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo.

"Government initiated the rural telephony project to provide telecommunications infrastructure and general information and communications technology (ICT) services to the rural areas, he said.

Elucidating, the Director, National Rural Telephony Programme, Mr. S.S. Ahmed, disclosed that the three firms listed for the second phase include ZTE Corporation, ASB and Huawei Technologies. Mr. Ahmed also said that proposals by these companies have already been studied and adopted for implementation.

The contract agreement being processed would include funding arrangement, which he corroborated is $300 million with a ceiling of $100m for each of the telcos, even as the Memorandum of Understanding on the loan from the Chinese government and participating financial institutions were signed in April this year, while negotiation on the loan continues.

Highway Africa News Agency (HANA) recalls that the first phase of the project was funded through a concessionary loan of US $200 million from the Peoples Republic of China, entailing the connection of estimated 280 rural communities to the Public Switched Telephone Network in the country.