President has ordered probes into the sale of Nigerian Telecommunications, NITEL and Mobile Telecommunications, MTEL sold by the previous government of ex-president Goodluck Jonathan.
President Buhari however said he was not opposed to the sale of the telecommunication companies belonging to the federal government but was concerned about the process.
It will be recalled that former President Jonathan’s administration sold the telecom company for $252m to NATCOM consortium in December 2014.
Speaking on Tuesday, to State House Correspondents after briefing President Buhari on the activities of the sector, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Communication and Technology, Dr. Tunji Olaopa said that the president has directed him to raise a memo on the whole transaction to ascertain if there were any underhand dealings.
He also stated that the president was equally concerned on the quality of service rendered by the telecom operators in Nigeria.
“The President was concerned about the liquidation of NITEL. He is not opposed to its privatization but he wants to know and he want us to bring a memo on how he whole transaction was undertaken so that he would know whether Nigeria was shortchanged.
“The President was concerned by the quality of service of telecom operators. The President is very concerned about the whole issue privatization that is hindering the investments in ICT infrastructure and that he will personally champion this. The President talked about the potentials of the ICT sector in generating employment”, Olaopa said.
