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Telecom

BPE, NATCOM Sign Agreement on NITEL’s Assets

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The Bureau of Public Enterprises has signed an Asset Sale Agreement with the preferred bidder for the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited, NATCOM Consortium.

In a statement in Abuja yesterday, Mr. Chgbo Anichebe, head of Public Communications at BPE, said the agreement was signed by the two parties in Abuja.

Anichebe said Dr. Olatunde Ayeni, Chairman of the consortium, , during the ceremony pledged to turn around the moribund telecom conglomerate in the shortest possible time to bring it back to its lost glory.

Ayeni, at the ceremony which also marked the issuance of Letter of Offer to the preferred bidder by BPE, said NITEL still had the potential to be the national carrier.

He said the consortium had the wherewithal to revamp NITEL and its mobile subsidiary, the Nigerian Mobile Telecommunications Limited to become the biggest and leading telecommunications outfit in Nigeria and that with the signing of the transaction documents, the process of revamping the organisation had begun.

Ayeni recalled the previous failed attempts to sell the enterprise and maintained that the current effort would not be in vain as the NATCOM Consortium was determined to break the jinx.

He said, “We pledge to make NITEL/M-Tel to come alive again to the delight of the BPE that had unsuccessfully in the past tried to sell the enterprise and to the good of Nigerians who will be employed and afforded another service provider in the telecoms market.

“BPE is indeed, one of the few government agencies in Nigeria that are transparent, meticulous and execute their assignments diligently.”

Mr. Benjamin Dikki, Director General of BPE, said that given the zeal and calibre of persons on the consortium that won the bid, he was confident that the consortium would pay the bid price and make NITEL/M-Tel work again.

“I believe we have the right group to turnaround NITEL/M-Tel and we believe without any doubt in their ability to turnaround the fortunes of NITEL,” Dikki said.

The BPE boss said the transaction had undergone a full circle with ratification and approval by the National Council on Privatisation and that what was remaining now was for the preferred bidder to pay up and take possession.

He warned the preferred bidder that signing of the Assets Sale Agreement did not in any way confer ownership on the consortium; adding that only the full payment of the bid consideration would grant them access to the assets.

Also speaking, Otunba Olutola Senbore, the Liquidator for NITEL/M-Tel, noted that though the task was daunting, with the cooperation of all stakeholders, the transaction was successful.

Following the disqualification of NETTAG Consortium as a result of its failure to provide a bid bond together, only the financial bid of NATCOM Consortium qualified for opening on December 3.

Accordingly, the financial proposal of NATCOM consortium was publicly opened and the consortium won with a bid price of $252.25m.

However, another entity, Arabian Amlak for Investment Limited led by General Abdullahi Mamman (Retd) has gone to court, challenging BPE for selecting NATCOM Consortium as the preferred bidder for NITEL.

The company said it was preposterous for BPE to offer NITEL and M-Tel to NATCOM Consortium for $252m when it had made an offer of $919,999,999 to the privatisation agency.


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Telecom

Telcos Plan Zero Tariff in Some Regions with Low Opex

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Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) is planning to encourage geo-political regions that grants zero charges for ‘Right of Way’ approvals as well not implementing arbitrary charges on telecommunications base stations in their regions with zero tariff.

Engr. Gbenga Adebayo, chairman, ALTON disclosed this to Nigeria CommunincationsWeek against the backdrop of incessant closure of base stations in some states.

He said that operators believe that the way out of this arbitrary charges and high cost of RoW approvals is regional tariffs.

“Operators are advocating for a regional tariff which means that geographical regions of Nigeria where cost of doing business for telecommunications operators is extremely high will attract high tariff compared to regions where there is low operating cost.

“Our advocacy of regional tariff is not based on a particular state but on regions. As at today there are regions where we have zero cost of “Right of Way” and low cost of doing business. Tariffs should reflect on operating environment. This means that national rate plan should consider high and low cost of doing business.

“If this is implemented, in a long run we could witness some regions having zero tariff because operational cost in such regions are friendly to operators,” he said.

It would be recalled that Kogi State recently shut down some operators’ base stations on account of local levies which raises the call for discriminatory tariff among geographical locations.

 


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AVEVA Appoints Sébastien Ory as EMEA VP Partners & Channels

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AVEVA, a global leader in industrial software driving digital transformation and sustainability in industries, today announces the appointment of Sébastien Ory, 48, as EMEA VP in charge of the partner and distributor network. VP of AVEVA Southern Europe since 2022 and President of AVEVA France since 2023, Sébastien now replaces Karine Calvet while remaining President of AVEVA France.

Sébastien Ory as EMEA VP Partners & Channels, AVEVA

In this new role, he will oversee the relationships with the various stakeholders involved in the distribution of AVEVA software and will have direct responsibility for more than forty employees spread across the EMEA region. Sébastien Ory will report directly to Jesus Hernandez, the new SVP of the EMEA region, who replaces Evgeny Fedotov, now CCO of RIB.

More than 18-year career in the industry

A graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique de Paris and the Institut National de l’Aéronautique (ISAE-SupAero) in Toulouse, Sebastien Ory is an active advocate for driving sustainable progress in the industrial sector.

He began his career at France Telecom as a sales manager where he stayed for 4 years before giving a more industrial dimension to his career.

With fifteen years of experience in the industrial automation industry, Sebastien Ory has developed a strategic understanding of this field. After 10 years in Schneider Electric’s industrial automation business, he led the global industrial software business development team for Schneider Electric Software from 2015 to 2018, with a particular focus on the water, power generation, mining and food industries. During these 3 years, the introduction of new software solutions will allow Schneider Electric Software to initiate and develop significant growth areas.

7 years at AVEVA

In 2018, Sébastien joined AVEVA as Vice President of the Southeast Asia region, leading a team of 200 talents in charge of delivering cloud-based industrial analytics and AI software. In addition to the growing developing the teams he leads from the Singapore headquarters, part of his energy is devoted to establishing direct engagement with leaders of major groups in the region such as Petronas, Pertamina, PTT, Wilmar and Olam, to stimulate their digital transformation initiatives.

In 2022, he took over the leadership of AVEVA’s activities in Southern Europe, a major industrial market for the company, whose customers, world leaders in the fields of Energy, Chemicals, Agri-food, Pharmaceuticals and Water, are looking for AVEVA’s expertise to accelerate and drive their digital transformation and sustainability strategies, as well as their energy transition projects. The changes he brings to the organization of the sales team are bearing fruit and allow AVEVA to acquire new customers while consolidating key accounts. As Sebastien transitions to the role of VP EMEA Partners & Channels, Dominique Bazin becomes the new Vice President of AVEVA Southern Europe.

EMEA VP Partners & Channels: a highly strategic position within AVEVA

Sébastien now holds the position of Vice President in charge of the Partners and Channels for AVEVA in Europe, Middle East and Africa, a major market for the company. His main mission is to design and implement a strategy for the growth of indirect sales, through a network of partners and strong alliances with Digital Services Companies (DSCs), AI platform providers and independent software vendors (ISVs) whose solutions are compatible with the CONNECT platform.


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FCCPC Warns Meta: Quitting Nigeria Won’t Erase Legal Liabilities

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Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has hit back at Meta Platforms Inc, warning the tech giant that its threat to exit Nigeria will not erase its legal responsibilities or liabilities under the Nigerian law.

Meta said earlier today, May 3, that it “may be forced to effectively shut down the Facebook and Instagram services in Nigeria in order to mitigate the risk of enforcement measures.”

Meta’s warning came after it lost a legal bid last week to overturn a ₦220 million fine imposed by the FCCPC for violations of data protection and consumer rights laws.

Reacting to Meta’s threat, FCCPC, in a statement on Saturday, May 3, described Meta’s statement as “a calculated” move aimed at “inducing negative public reaction and potentially pressuring the FCCPC to reconsider its decision.”

FCCPC said that Meta threatening to leave Nigeria does not absolve the company of liabilities for the outcome of a judicial process.

“These infringements included denying Nigerians the right to control their personal data, transferring and sharing Nigerian user data without authorisation, discriminating against Nigerian users compared to users in other jurisdictions and abusing their dominant market position by forcing unfair privacy policies,” FCCPC wrote on X.

“Interestingly, Meta had been fined for similar breaches in Texas ($1.5b) and only recently was asked to pay $1.3 Billion for violating E.U. Data Privacy Rules.

Elsewhere in India, South Korea, France and Australia, Meta had faced varying penalties for similar breaches. But Meta never resorted to the blackmail of threatening to exit those countries. They obeyed.”

 


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