Nigeria To Open Bid For Nitel Next Week

Nigeria will open bids for the long delayed privatisation of former state telecoms firm Nitel next Tuesday after potential buyers including South Africa's MTN and Nigeria's Globacom met a deadline for technical proposals.

Nigeria's Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) announced only six of 14 consortia, which had originally expressed interest in buying parts of Nitel, and its mobile arm MTEL would take part in the financial bidding process.

"Further to the announcement by the Nigerian Bureau of Public Enterprises, the MTN Group can confirm that it has expressed interest in some of the assets of Nitel," MTN spokeswoman Nozipho January-Bardill said.

Nigeria invited expressions of interest in July for a minimum of a 75 percent stake in the Nitel conglomerate or a stake in one or several of its components, including mobile arm MTEL, the South Atlantic Terminal underwater cable (SAT-3) and its domestic fixed line network.

The BPE said in January 14 investors had prequalified, including Emirates Telecommunications Corp (Etisalat) and MTNL India neither of which were among the final six bidders.

Nigeria is one of the world's fastest growing telecoms markets but has struggled to sell Nitel, mainly because of the shambolic state of its fixed line infrastructure and huge debt.