BNP Paribas Consortium to offer Technical advisory services for the privatization of the Nigerian Telecommunications (NITEL) and its mobile outfit (MTEL), following the emergence of the consortium as the highest scorer in a financial bid held yesterday.
Alhaji Mohammed Hayatudeen, chairman of the Technical Committee of national Council on privatization (NCP) who presided over the bid opening exercise explained that though the BNP Paribas Consortium scored 82.48 percent with price offer of $3.502 million and technical abilities put together far above three other bidders, it would be forwarded to the NCP for consideration and approval.
The other bidders which would be forwarded to the NCP for consideration include Lazard/Vetiva Consortium which scored 75.64 percent with price offer of $7.263 Million, Renaissance/BGL Consortium which scored 70.61 percent with price offer of $13.905 million and Rothschild/UBA consortium which scored 74.81 percent with price offer of $4.887 million.
The implication is that if the BNP Paribus Consortium is awarded the Technical advisory service contract, the Federal Government would pay the consortium $3.502 million for the services render in course of the privatization of NITEL/MTEL.
Hayatudeen said that NCP was determined to ensure that the whole exercise of privatizing the nation’s NITEL/MTEL was concluded latest by end of this year and that in course of achieving that, the Council would ensure that international best practices were complied with to ensure transparency, adding that the Federal Government would not relent in seeing that the two national carrier bounce back.
Also while answering questions on why the Core investor, Transnational Corporation had gone ahead to hire a new Chief Executive for NITEL/MTEL while the Federal Government is going ahead with the processes of privatizing it afresh, Mrs. Irene Chigbue, director-general of the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) said the Bureau had drawn the attention of TRANSCORP to the issue.
She said even if the Transcorp need to hire a new Chief Executive for the communications outfit, such decision ought to have been tabled before the Board of NCP for approval before bringing to the public knowledge.
