NITEL Sale To Be Concluded In January

Director general of Nigeria's Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Dr Christopher Anyanwu, has stated that the sale of ailing incumbent telco Nigeria Telecommunications (NITEL) to a new core investor will be concluded by January 2010, local newspaper Daily Trust reports.

He added that those companies that have submitted a bid for the operator are currently undertaking due diligence on its facilities. In early October the BPE extended the deadline for the submission of technical and financial bids from 2 October to 26 October due to the complexity of the process.

The winning bidder was expected to be announced on 9 November. However, the 60-day deadline set by the federal government for the completion of the sale was not met due to the difficulties experienced by foreign investors to get visas to visit the country and assess the operator's assets.