Joe Oroye
23 September 2008
February 6 next year has been slated for the handing over of ailing NITEL and Mtel to new private owners after scaling down the timeframe from the initial seven-months period earlier approved for the financial advisors by the National Council on Privatisation.
This decision was disclosed at the end of the 55th meeting of the NCP presided over by Vice President Goodluck Jonathan at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, yesterday. Briefing State House journalists, the Director General of the Bureau for Public Enterprises, Irene Chigbue, along with the Minister of State for Information, Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki Nakande, said the Council further listed for sale, the 30 per cent stake of the Federal Government in NICON Insurance which has its majority shares of 70 per cent already in the hands of entrepreneur, Jimoh Ibrahim.
She further explained that one of the key enterprises whose privatization is given priority is the Pipeline and Products Marketing Company (PPMC). She said the workplan approved by the NCP for the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), management presentations and finalization of transaction documents of bidders will be concluded by December 22 this year, while preparationd and submission of technical and financial bids with payment of 50 per cent of bid amount will be done by January 15, next year.
Evaluation of technical proposals is slated to end by January 20 and these are to be approved by the technical committee of the NCP on January 21, next year. The opening of financial bids is scheduled for January 27, 2009 while the approval of the financial offers by NCP is to be done by February 2 where the owners of NITEL/Mtel will emerge. The process, the committee decided, will terminate between the 3rd and 6th of February 2009 when negotiation and signing of the Share Sales Purchase Agreement (SSPA) would be signed between the new buyers and the federal government after payment of the full financial bid approved.
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