Also the bureau advised the Consortium to justify their emergence in the privatization process by deploying the right technology to turn around the sector.
Acting Director-General of BPE, Dr Vincent Akpotaire gave the advice when the representatives of Ntel management led by Mr Osondu C. Nwokoro visited the Bureau to make presentation on the post-privatisation roll out plan on in Abuja.
The Ag D G expressed satisfaction with NATCOM’s post-privatisation roll out plans. He assured the NATCOM team of the Bureau’s dedication to its responsibilities towards achieving the set objectives of privatising NITEL/MTEL.
He said he was optimistic that NTEL would fill the position of a strong indigenous telecommunications service provider. To this, he pledged that the Bureau would work with the National Council for Privatisation (NCP) to resolve some outstanding issues in order to expedite the execution of the roll out plans.
Earlier in his presentation, Mr Nwokoro said NATCOM, the core investors of the defunct NITEL/MTEL with its outlined post-privatisation plans and milestones achieved thus far, is well positioned to justifying the privatisation initiative championed by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE). He said they are also set to distinguish NTEL as the preferred choice of telecommunications service provider in Nigeria under the name NTEL.
Nwokoro said that significant milestones in the area of technological operating system had been achieved, noting that “NTEL network designed for the 900 Mhz (Band 8) and 1800 Mhz (Band 3) frequency bands equips it to operate as the most advanced 4G LTE network in Nigeria.” He said, as part of its post-acquisition plan, Ntel would be investing over $1 billion to support roll out of commercial services starting in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja.
“This milestone among others is geared towards making the dream of giving Nigerians a pure play advanced 4G LTE network offering mobile services across voice, data and video a reality,” he said.
Mr Damian Udeh the Head, Government Affairs for Ntel added that the enterprise, being positioned as customer-centric was prepared to offer unrivaled customer satisfaction by surpassing the stipulated customer service requirements by Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). He added that NTEL would operate on a virgin platform thus making it free of clutter and set to deliver seamless quality of service to subscribers.
Affirming NTEL’s position as an indigenous player in the sector, the team confirmed that all labour matters were being managed appropriately and that till date, all staff of the enterprise was of Nigerian nationality.
The company hopes to generate employment for over 4,000 Nigerians over the next five years.
At the end of the presentation, the Director, Post Privatisation Monitoring Department of the BPE, Mr Chigbo Anichebe, informed the visiting team that the Bureau would soon commence verification of the all their deployed equipment across the country; and that the company would be communicated to before commencement. He said monitoring template would be sent to them accordingly.
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