December 4, 2014 – The Federal Government on Wednesday approved NATCOM Telecommunications as the successful bidder for Nigerian Telecommunications and its mobile arm, the moribund, Mtel.
NATCOM is however required to pay $242.3 million into the coffers of the Federal Government to take over the company.
NATCOM emerged winner after NETTAG Consortium was disqualified for failing to attach $10million bid bond to its bid submission as stipulated for all prospective bidders.
The successful bidder is expected to pay 30 percent of total amount within 15 days of notification while the balance will be paid in 90 days, three months.
The bid organised by the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) must be approved by the National Council on Privatisation.
However, NATCOM made an initial offered $252.251 million for NITEL and MTEL.
Speaking at the event, Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson said the Federal Government would continue to fine tune policies to provide enabling environment for the growth and development of a private sector-driven telecommunications industry, adding that the sector attracted new investments valued at over $32billion in the last 13 years, resulting in over 130 million subscribers compared to just 750,000 previously.
