{"id":441271,"date":"2011-06-14T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-06-14T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/06\/14\/fg-sets-final-deadline-for-nitel-reserve-bidder\/"},"modified":"2011-06-14T23:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-06-14T23:00:00","slug":"fg-sets-final-deadline-for-nitel-reserve-bidder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/fg-sets-final-deadline-for-nitel-reserve-bidder\/","title":{"rendered":"FG sets final deadline for NITEL reserve bidder"},"content":{"rendered":"
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|\u00a0Print\u00a0|<\/a>\u00a0E-mail<\/a><\/p>\n

Written by Gbola Subair, Abuja, with Agency Report<\/span> Wednesday, 15 June 2011<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

THE Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), on Tuesday, said the reserve bidder for former state telecoms monopoly, Nigerian Telecommunications (NITEL) had one more day to come up with a $105 million bid security or the firm could face liquidation.<\/p>\n

Ms Bolanle Onagoruwa, Director-General of the BPE, said Omen International Consortium had told the agency it had made the payment, but that the funds had yet to turn up in the BPE account.<\/p>\n

Onagoruwa repeated that should Omen fail to pay, the BPE would consider other options, including setting a minimum price for NITEL and offering it to the remaining bidders, or liquidating the struggling company.<\/p>\n

Nigeria is one of the world\u2019s fastest-growing telecoms markets but the government has been trying to sell NITEL for almost a decade, struggling mainly because of the shambolic state of its fixed-line infrastructure and huge debt.<\/p>\n

Its fixed lines have fallen to fewer than 100,000 from five times that number in 2001 and subscribers to its M-TEL mobile unit have dropped to a few thousands from over one\u00a0 million.<\/p>\n

The BPE wrote to Omen Consortium in March, asking if it would be interested in revalidating its original February 2010 offer of $959 million after the preferred bidder missed several payment deadlines.<\/p>\n

The agency said in April that Omen had two weeks to respond but Onagoruwa said it had subsequently written a letter promising to pay the bid security.<\/p>\n

Onagoruwa also said Nigeria hoped to complete the sale of six power plants and 11 distribution firms by the first quarter of next year, as part of a multi-billion dollar privatisation plan.<\/p>\n

Nigeria is selling four thermal and two hydropower plants and 11 electricity distribution firms, as part of a drive to end\u00a0 power shortages in the sub-Saharan Africa\u2019s second-largest economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hope is that by the first quarter of 2012, we will be able to hand over to the investors,\u201d Onagoruwa said.<\/p>\n

She added that the 207 shortlisted bidders would need to pay a $20,000 fee for each asset they were interested in by July 15, to confirm their intention to bid, while final offers would be submitted on November 1, after a due diligence process.<\/p>\n

Only around 40 per cent of Nigeria\u2019s 150 million people currently have access to electricity, making the potential returns for investors in the power sector huge.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, all the\u00a0 privatised enterprises\u00a0 in the country are owing\u00a0 N204 billion debt, as the Federal Government paid N57 billion to workers of privatised enterprises.<\/p>\n

The Director-General, Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Ms Onagoruwa, said this during the Eminent Persons Series, organised by Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).<\/p>\n

Ms Onagoruwa said to offset the debt burden, the government would embark on the sale of part of non-core assets of the enterprises, while the Nigerian Electricity Liability Management Company had been incorporated to undertake the task.<\/p>\n

On the ongoing privatisation of the power sector, Onagoruwa said there were 207 pre-qualified bidders for the companies, 80 for the DISCOS; 87 for the thermal Gencos and 40 for the hydro Gencos.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have informed all prequalified bidders by sending them individual letters and publishing the names of the companies… included in the letter also is the revised timeline for the transaction,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The BPE boss added that the ambition of the Federal Government was to meet the Vision 20:2020 target of 40,000 megawatts, which required an investment in power generating capacity of at least $3.5 billion per annum for the next 10 years, adding that large investments would also have to be in power transmission and distribution.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe successful privatisation of the successor companies is dependent on the involvement of all stakeholders like SEC in mobilising all technical and financial resources to ensure a closure of the transmission,\u201d the DG said.<\/p>\n

In another paper presentation, the Head of the Presidential Task Force on Power, Professor Bartholomew Nnaji, regretted that out of 150 million population of Nigeria, only 40 per cent had access to electricity supply, adding that electricity supply in Nigeria had a high cost of over N8 billion per annum.<\/p>\n

He said more than 80 per cent of that amount went to salaries and welfare.<\/p>\n

\u201cDistribution and transmission network has to grow at the rate of, at least, 16 per cent year on year to handle an equipment of 13,000 megawatts by 2013,\u201d he said, adding that current average growth rate per annum was less than one per cent, due to limited investment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The rest is here:
\nFG sets final deadline for NITEL reserve bidder<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

|\u00a0Print\u00a0| \u00a0E-mail Written by Gbola Subair, Abuja, with Agency Report Wednesday, 15 June 2011 THE Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), on Tuesday, said the reserve bidder for former state telecoms monopoly, Nigerian Telecommunications (NITEL) had one more day to come up with a $105 million bid security or the firm could face liquidation. Ms Bolanle Onagoruwa, Director-General of the BPE, said Omen International Consortium had told the agency it had made the payment, but that the funds had yet to turn up in the BPE account. Onagoruwa repeated that should Omen fail to pay, the BPE would consider other options, including setting a minimum price for NITEL and offering it to the remaining bidders, or liquidating the struggling company<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":441272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-441271","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment"},"yoast_head":"\nFG sets final deadline for NITEL reserve bidder - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/14\/fg-sets-final-deadline-for-nitel-reserve-bidder\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"FG sets final deadline for NITEL reserve bidder - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"|\u00a0Print\u00a0| \u00a0E-mail Written by Gbola Subair, Abuja, with Agency Report Wednesday, 15 June 2011 THE Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), on Tuesday, said the reserve bidder for former state telecoms monopoly, Nigerian Telecommunications (NITEL) had one more day to come up with a $105 million bid security or the firm could face liquidation. 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