Ministry of Communications Technology said it is waiting for the final confirmation by the federal executive council (FEC) to handover the National Rural Telephony Project (NRTP) to operators that emerged preferred bidders to operate the networks across the country.

Barring any unforeseen delays, the ministry, said that the transaction will be rectified between now and March and that the winners will take over the project.

The National Rural Telephony Project, the little successful $200 million project was conceived in 2001 to take telephony services to the rural areas.

The project has however been caught in a web of confusion, claims and counter charges with fingers pointing left and right.

Engr. John Ayodele, director of Posts and Telecommunications in the ministry of Communications Technology, told Nigeria CommunicationsWeek that his ministry will conclude the protracted deal by April.

Ayodele said that the date is based on budgetary approval which the ministry has appropriated for in the 2014 budget and is waiting for approval.

He added that every necessary approvals for the conclusion of the transaction between the ministry and the preferred bidders have been secured except the final confirmation by the federal executive council (FEC) of presidential approval, which is expected to be rectified between now and March this year.

“The Ministry of Communications Technology is committed to conclusion of this transaction; we have included it in our 2014 budget of the ministry and is waiting for budgetary approval. When our budget for the year is approved, all that we need to do is to get federal executive council to rectify President Goodluck Jonathan’s approval of the transaction. Once all these are done, we are looking at handing over the networks to the preferred bidders by April this year,” he stated.

It would be recalled that federal government in July last year began concerted efforts towards concluding the transaction with the inauguration a new board which has Senator Ken Nnamani as chairman.

Other members of the board were Senator Anyin Pius Anyim, secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF); Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN), minister of Justice; Dr Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala, minister of Finance; and Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, among others.

The NRTP inaugurated under former President Obasanjo’s first term in office, was to cover 218 Local Government Areas (LGA) in the first phase and provide over 636,256 Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), lines in the 774 LGAs and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in the second phase to bridge the digital divide between the urban and rural areas.

Three Chinese companies– ZTE Corporation, Huawei and Shagai Bell – were awarded the contract at the sum of $200 million.

The Federal Government had borrowed the above amount from the China Export and Import (EXIM) Bank, while it provided 15 per cent counterpart funding of N5 billion for the execution of the project.

Nigeria CommunicationsWeek gathered that the Chinese companies failed to deliver on the project prompting the federal government to transfer the first phase of the project to five indigenous telecommunications companies namely: Key Communications Limited, Suburban Broadband Limited, Voicewares Network Limited, Gicell Wireless Limited and Hezonic

Engr. Gerry Ekesiani, chief executive officer, Voicewares Networks Limited, one of the operators of the project that won the contract to operate South-east and Benue exchange, said that stakeholders in the project which are operators and ministry of Communications Technology have engaged in meetings in order to resolve outstanding issues that are delaying full take off of the project.

He stated that continue delay of the project is jeopardizing full realization of the project, adding that the 800MGH frequency allocated to them is no longer suitable for delivery of broadband and that had it being that the project has taken off the current plan by Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to license 2.3Ghz spectrum would have been an opportunity for them to upgrade to 2.3Ghz.

He explained that 2.3Ghz is robust for broadband service delivery which NRTP is designed for.

Ekesiani added that the continued delay in the rollout of services is causing Association of Rural Telephony Operators of Nigeria (ARTON) financial losses while the equipment have become object of vandals and thieves.

Among the companies that emerged preferred bidders in the various zones are, Suburban Limited (now Telefund Ltd) emerging for Abuja and Kaduna zones respectively; Gicel Wireless emerging for Bauchi Zone; Voicewares Networks Limited for Enugu Zone; Key Communications for Ibadan Zone and Hezonic for PortHarcount Zone.