Nigeria : President Jonathan receives report on Nitel sale

Goodluck Jonathan attends the plenary session of the Africa-South America Summit in Margarita Island September 27, 2009

A panel probing the planned sale of former Nigerian state telecoms monopoly Nitel has submitted its report to the president, paving the way for the stalled process to be revived, the privatisation agency said on Tuesday.

President Goodluck Jonathan set up the panel in March to probe the top two prospective buyers of Nitel amid doubts about the financial backers for a $2.5 billion preferred bid approved by the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE).

The bid by the New Generation consortium including China Unicom, China's second-biggest carrier, Dubai company Minerva and local firm GiCell valued Nitel at more than five times what some industry analysts said it was worth.

Omen International, a consortium registered in the British Virgin Islands which emerged as the reserve bidder with a $956 million offer, was also investigated by the panel.

The BPE had said it would terminate the sale process and start afresh if the probe showed the two bidders were unable to stump up the funds for their offer prices.

"There were issues arising from both of the (preferred and reserved) bidders sharing the same technical partner," BPE spokesman Chukwuma Nwoko said. "The committee has submitted its report to the president. We are waiting for further direction."

Nigeria has been trying to sell Nitel for almost a decade, and the controversy over the latest effort is embarrassing for sub-Saharan Africa's biggest telecoms market.

The probe by Jonathan's panel -- which included several ministers -- was delayed after the president reshuffled his cabinet in March, meaning the panel had to be reconstituted.

Without citing its sources, Nigerian newspaper This Day said the panel's report included two options -- the first that New Generation be allowed to pay a $750 million deposit in the next 10 days, the second that negotiations should take place with the second and third reserve bidders.

Nwoko declined to comment on the This Day report, but said the BPE was hopeful it would eventually sell Nitel.

Reuters