Reps decry NITEL's N250b debt, meet Sambo

The Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation, Hon. Khadija Bukar Abba Ibrahim, is worried that it might be difficult to privatise NITEL owing to its huge debt profile, which now stands at about N250 billion.
She expressed the reservation on Thursday while fielding questions from correspondents after a meeting with Vice-President Namadi Sambo, who chairs the National Council on Privatisation.

She said, the committee raised concerns about the debt profile with Sambo, insisting that it would be difficult to woo investors to buy the national telecommunications carrier.
Her words: “Basically, in the forefront of things we have NITEL. We are all worried about what is going to happen, it is indebted.
“I mean there is so much debt in NITEL, whoever is going to buy NITEL will have a lot to deal with.
“It is indebted to the tune of about N250 billion. So, I mean you are talking about a lot of money and there are a lot of salaries and wages that haven’t been paid to staff.”
Ibrahim said the Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria in Ikot Abasi “is the same thing.  There is a lot of staff liabilities to be taken care of and other aspects that either the government did not have idea or the privatised companies.
“So, there are so many things that need to be put together and we have agreed that from time to time we will liaise with the Executive arm, that is the NCP to see that it becomes a success.
“In privatisation it is a bit of give and take, government has to play its own role in making sure that the privatisation exercise in this country works.
“So, we are there to ensure that government plays its role in making sure that the privatisation exercise is a success. It is not as if the privatised companies are not doing their own part in trying to see this work. It is not an easy process, some of them have done very well, some of them have not done really well and some of them just need to heal or close.”
Responding to the concerns raised, Sambo called for closer partnership between the National Council on Privatisation and the National Assembly, saying it was the only way success can be achieved.
While noting that the privatisation policy was aimed at creating wealth and jobs for Nigerians, Sambo assured the Reps that government was making efforts to represent all outstanding Bills regarding the privatisation process to the National Assembly.