The Federal Government, through its agency, the National Council on Privatisation (NCP), has approved the sale of a NITEL/MTEL property located at No 3-5, Moloney Street, Tafawa Balewa Square, Onikan, Lagos, to the Lagos State government.
The Bureau in a statement at the weekend, said the property was one of those listed for sale by the liquidator of NITEL/MTEL Non-Core assets at the cost of N2.5 billion, adding that the council, chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, granted the approval at its second meeting for 2023 held recently.
Though the property is presently encumbered by activities of illegal occupants, the state government has promised a harmless takeover.
NITEL, as a federal government’s agency, was incorporated in 1984 but formally commenced operations in 1985 and was jointly owned by the government with 93.3 percent share and First Bank of Nigeria Plc with 6.7 per cent.
MTEL was established in 1996 out of NITEL to provide cellular services. It started a General System for Mobile (GSM) communication in March 2003 after NITEL transferred its GSM licence it acquired when the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) first auctioned Digital Mobile Licences in February 2000.
The NCP, at its meeting on February 27, 2012, approved the privatisation of NITEL and MTEL through ‘guided liquidation.’
The strategy was adopted by the council after due consideration of other options and considering the previous failed attempts to privatise NITEL and MTEL through Strategic Core Investor Sale and Negotiated Sale strategies and the huge liabilities to creditors to the tune of over N300bn.
Under the guided liquidation strategy, all the core assets and business undertakings of NITEL and MTEL were to be sold as a single or multiple lots to a qualified bidder by the Liquidator under the general guidance of the NCP.
