Olatunde Ayeni, Chairman of NATCOM Consortium, owners of the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) and MTEL, its mobile subsidiary, has said the company will employ 10,000 Nigerians. Ayeni said this while addressing the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Communications.
According to him, having met all requirements and due diligence in the process leading to the acquisitions of NITEL and MTEL, the company has put in place a programme of resuscitating the two ailing telecoms companies.
NATCOM Consortium comprises of seven local and foreign companies.
Ayeni told lawmakers that efforts were ongoing at overhauling the entire cable system while 10,000 Nigerians would be employed to set the companies on the part of competition with other players in the market.
Expressing satisfaction with NATCOM and its work plan, the committee headed by Hon. Saheed Fijabi directed both the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to meet and discuss the sales of the two national telecoms firms. The parley according to the committee, was to review the commercial and technical areas of the sale as they affect the telecommunications regulatory body and the BPE.
The committee particularly expressed its concern over the settlement of the indebtedness of NITEL by its new owner, NATCOM.
The committee however noted that though NATCOM did all that were required of it despite not been given any form of waiver by BPE and NCC in the process leading to the sales, but pointed out that it was however necessary that the grey areas of NITEL’s indebtedness be sorted out by the BPE and NCC.
