Nigeria Content Online

Uncertainty
surrounds last Thursday’s expiration of the controversial extended
deadline for the payment of 30 per cent bid security for the sale of
the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) and its mobile
subsidiary, MTel.

Several calls to
the Director General, Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE), Bolanle
Onagoruwa, prior to close of official working hours last Thursday went
unanswered.

Spokesman to the
privatisation agency, Chukwuma Nwoko, said he did not have information
about the issue. “I don’t know anything about whether the payment has
been made or not. I am on leave. I am in my village as I am talking to
you. We have closed for the year,” he said.

Special Assistant
to the Director General, Azeez Aderemi, could neither confirm nor deny
that New Generation Consortium failed to meet the deadline for the
payment.

“Nobody is in the
office to confirm whether the payment has been done or not. The
Director General has travelled out of the country at the moment. I only
read in the media that the payment has not been made, and that
government is considering inviting the reserve bidder. I don’t know
where they got the story from,” Mr. Aderemi said.

Letters instead of payment

But, Usman Gumi,
the Chief Operating Officer, New Generation Consortium, confirmed
yesterday that his company has not paid the $750 million into BPE
account; even though the expiration of the December 23 extended
deadline in line with the provisions of the bid guidelines spelt out by
the National Council on Privatisation (NCP).

“What we (New
Generation Consortium) did was to send a letter from our financiers to
the BPE last Thursday, December 23 at 3.15 p.m., which is verifiable,
to prove that we have the fund in place to pay once the global finance
world has returned from the current holidays,” Mr Gumi said.

“We did not stop
there. We followed up with another letter with additional proof to
reassure everyone that we are capable and ready to fund the payment.
What we want to do is not just to pay for the initial bid security of
30 per cent, but the entire amount of $2.5billion at a go,” Mr Gumi
said.

Following
Presidency approval last October for the BPE to take steps to conclude
the privatisation process, New Generation was, on October 25, asked to
pay the initial bid security of $750 million within 10 calendar days
from the date of its receipt of a demand letter conveying its
acknowledgment as winner.

But, following a
request for 30 days extension to enable it mobilise funds for the
transaction, the NCP on November 5 granted the consortium 20 days
extension, to help the consortium “clarify all compliance and due
diligence issues and also to remit the funds into BPE’s account.”

The BPE claims the deadline extension did not take effect until
November 19 when the letter conveying the approval by the Vice
President and Chairman of the NCP, Namadi Sabo, was received by the
Consortium. The BPE had earlier announced the extension to take effect
from November 5 based on a verbal approval Mrs Onagoruwa claimed to
have received from the Vice President.