...It's N354bn — BPE, It's N182bn — NITEL
ABUJA, July 17, (THEWILL) - The almost extinct
Nigeria Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) has
generated the sum of N101.38bn within the past
six years but the figure simply pales out in
comparison to its debt profile, which has not only
run into several hundred billions of naira but is
also difficult to specifically ascertain.
Speaking on Tuesday at the two-day investigative
public hearing on the operational activities of Mtel/
NITEL, its present management board, present
status of its investment and revenue generation
from ongoing service rendered to other
telecommunication companies, which was held
by the Joint House Committee on Privatisation,
Finance, Communications, Public Procurement
and Information Technology, director-general of
the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Ms. Bolanle
Onagoruwa conveyed the positive disposition of
the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) to
adopting 'guided liquidation' against the injection
of $1bn for the reactivation of the two telecoms
companies.
But Onagoruwa was shocked to see her figures
on the company's debt profile countered. While
the BPE DG listed the company's debt as N354
billion, the chief executive officer of NITEL, Mrs.
Illyasu Sa'ab put it at N182b, out of which NITEL
owed N79bn while Mtel owed N103bn.
Onagoruwa had disclosed that the sum of $
3,668,561.70 was generated from Sat-3
submarine cable, $2,855,091.81 remitted in the
domiciliary account, $521,990 generated from
British Telecoms, $290,230 from cable and
wireless services and $1,249.84 realised from
interest.
According to her, the companies' liabilities include
N65,227,595,681 on equipment vendors,
N81,711,196,994 on bank claims,
N183,403,439,256 for government agencies and
N24,504,836,126 for others.
She added that Federal Government raised the
sum of N68,248,884,000, through the Debt
Management Office (DMO), to offset outstanding
salaries totalling N54.2b, leaving a debt profile at
N122,448,884,000 with Assets Management
Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).
But chairman of the House Committee on
privatisation, Hon. Khadijah Bukar abba- Ibrahim
queried NITEL management over the N172b
differential in the debt profile compiled by both
parties.
Abba-Ibrahim, who was also concerned about
the unsuccessful six privatisation exercises
conducted by BPE and the eventual collapse of
the companies, said, "I see no reason why
Federal Government cannot put money into
NITEL and Mtel and resuscitate it."
The CEO of NITEL, Illiyasu-Sa'ad, had in her
presentation said that the company generated the
sum of $5 million required to maintain Sat-3
yearly, but noted that no core investor could take
possession of the 7.33 per cent share of Sat-3/
WASC/SAFE as stated in the agreement signed by
the 33 member states. She added that only
member states can acquire the share.
She explained that the implementation of some of
the expansion programmes was stalled by the
privatisation exercise, adding that Mtel had 1.4
million subscriber capacity and national
geographical 11.57 percent as at 2006, as well as
566 base transceiver stations but noted that Mtel
has lost its market share of Mtel.
"Mtel is owing banks, contractors and
interconnect to the tune of N79b plus another
N45b due to ministries, departments and
agencies (MDAs)," she said.
"Other operational challenges include sale of
critical core assets of company like the NECOM
house, lease office accomm and sale of NITEL
headquarters, stolen and vadalised equipment, all
technical personnel long exited, integration
challenges due to multi-vendor, huge debt liability
worth N103bn arising from uncompleted
projects, zero revenue in the last five years due to
non-operation as well as lack of insurance cover
for equipment in spite of case vandalisation."
She said NITEL generated N2.5b in 2009 and
N2.3b in 2010 but recorded decline in its revenue
N853m in 2011, and that local currency worth
N105,286m and $182,649.79 as at June 2009 was
domiciled.
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