Goodluck Jonathan has finally given his stamp of approval to the $2.5 billion bid by the New Generation Telecommunications Consortium for moribund state-owned Nigerian Telecommunications ompany (NITEL) and its mobile arm, M-Tel.
The president's approval is pursuant to the recommendation of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP), following the outcome of its investigations into the auction for NITEL in February this year due to controversies over the emergence of New Generation as the preferred bidder.
The president's approval includes a proviso, in line with the provisions of the bid's RFP, that the consortium (whose financial partner is Dubai-based Minerva Group) must pay a bid security of $750 million as a pre-condition for the issuance of an offer letter. The balance of $1.75 million must be paid within 60 days from the issuance of the letter.
The reserve bidder for the auction remains Omen International, with a bid price of $956,996,091.
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