Buhari queries sale of NITEL, MTEL
The President who met with the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Communication Technology, Dr. Tunji Olaopa,said he was not particularly opposed to the sale of NITEL but would want to ascertain that due processes were followed.
Briefing Villa correspondent after the closed-door meeting with the President, Olaopa said Buhari demanded explanations on the processes leading to the eventual sale of NITEL to NATCOM Consortium in December 2014. Recall that NITEL was sold to NATCOM by the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan at the sum of $252 million.
Olaopa said: “The President was concerned by the quality of service of telecom operators. The President is very concerned about the whole issue of 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.
The President was concerned about the liquidation of NITEL. He is not opposed to its privatization but he wants to know and he wants us to bring a memo on how the whole transaction was undertaken so that he would know whether Nigeria was shortchanged.”
In a statement later released by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on media and publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, Buhari directed the ministry to work harder to fully develop the revenue-generation potential of Nigeria’s information technology sector.
This, according to him, has become necessary considering the continued decline of the nation’s economic fortunes owing to consistent fall in prices of crude at the international market.
The President also directed the Ministry to bring forward for his consideration and approval, all pending proposals for the development of the country’s IT sector which require the approval of the Federal Executive Council.
“Where you don’t need EXCO approval and you are not in breach of the law and will not lose money, you can go ahead. Now that oil costs less and we are contending with its theft, we have to move to areas where we can realize revenue quickly,” the President said.
Buhari welcomed the plan by the Ministry to use post-offices across the country for IT and financial transactions especially in the rural communities, saying that he was happy to hear that “we are recovering the post offices from rats and rodents.”
Meanwhile, President Buhari has approved the dissolution of the Executive Management Team of the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).
He has also approved the appointment of Ahmed Lawan Kuru as the new Managing Director of the corporation.
Other members of the management team approved by the President include Kola Ayeye, Eberechukwu Uneze and Aminu Ismail as Executive Directors.
Until his appointment today as Managing Director of AMCON, Mr. Ahmed Kuru was the Group Managing Director of Enterprise Bank Limited.
He started his banking career with the old Habib Bank in 1985 and rose through the ranks to become an Executive Director of Bank PHB (now Keystone Bank) in 2005.
Kuru’s appointment and the three new AMCON Executive Directors is with effect from today, August 18, 2015
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