Nigeria’s government has set a 60-day deadline for the privatization of the state-owned incumbent telco NITEL, including its mobile subsidiary M-Tel. The announcement came on Monday as the Nigerian Vice-President, Goodluck Jonathan, appointed a new board to the company to oversee its stabilization.
NITEL is in financial difficulty and faces intense competition. The firm’s employees have taken strike action this year over unpaid salaries and severance packages, with workers in some instances going without pay for eight months.
Local press reports quoted Goodluck Jonathan as telling the board: “There are a lot of issues at stake since NITEL is a critical infrastructure not only for government but for all Nigerians. Your task is, therefore, very challenging as all of us want to see how NITEL will be properly privatized to yield the expected benefits.” Read the rest of this entry »
