Nitel: Reserved bidder transfers $ 150m into BPE's account

The reserved bidder for the Nigeria Telecommunications Limited, Omen International Consortium, has transferred the sum of $150m into the escrow account of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, investigation has shown.


A competent source at the BPE, who spoke to The Punch on the condition of anonymity, confirmed on Sunday that the agency received notice of the transfer of $150m on Friday.

According to the source, the money was transferred late on Thursday, but it had not yet hit the escrow account of BPE at the New York Standard Chartered Bank as at Friday.

The source said, “On Friday, we received a notification of money transfer. The details showed that $150m was transferred late on Thursday from a German bank.

“The money has not yet cleared and we are expecting that it should be through by Monday. If that happens, then we can talk with Omen.”

The BPE spokesman, Mr. Chukwuma Nwokoh, however, denied knowledge of the transfer in a telephone interview with our correspondent.

“We are not aware of any fund transfer. We have said that the transaction remained closed on Wednesday. We cannot rewrite our story,” he said.

Nwokoh, had in a statement on Wednesday, said the privatisation agency had terminated the transaction following the inability of the consortium to pay on Wednesday, as it had earlier indicated it would.

However, our correspondent learnt that as at Friday, the top officials of the privatisation agency were still waiting for the alleged transfer to clear.

It was also learnt that the waiting would continue till the end of work on Friday to satisfy an earlier stand declared by the Director-General of BPE, Ms. Bolanle Onagoruwa.

Onagoruwa, had on Tuesday, said at an Eminent Speaker Series, organised by the Securities and Exchange Commission, that Omen had till Friday to make good the pledge to pay the $105m, which represents 30 per cent of its bid offer.

She said the agency would give Omen up till Friday, even if it failed to pay the bid security by Wednesday, after which it would consider the guided liquidation of NITEL, among other options.

The BPE boss had said, “They (Omen) had been claiming that it was the elections, their financiers and the stability of the Nigerian government that was delaying them; they said we should give them till the June 10 to pay.

“On June 10, they brought in a letter to my office saying that they had transferred the money and that we should expect to receive it in our account by Wednesday. We want to give them up till Friday to know if the money will come in, but we already know what to do if the money is not in.”

A top official of BPE, who spoke to our correspondent on the condition of anonymity because he was not the official spokesperson of the agency, confirmed that the Friday deadline remained intact.

“I am not aware that the transaction has been brought to a close. Our DG had indicated at a public forum that Omen has till Friday to pay. Nothing has changed about that declaration,” the source said.

Should Omen fail to show evidence of payment, the BPE will have to wait on the National Council on Privatisation, chaired by Vice-President Namadi Sambo, to approve a new direction on how to proceed with the disposal of the troubled national asset.

THE PUNCH had reported that the agency had made two recommendations to the NCP for ending the long transaction process, which began in 2009.

One of the options, which is liquidation, involves bringing a business to a formal end because of insolvency or any other tenable reason.

When this is done, the assets of the business are sold and from the proceeds, the creditors are settled. Whatever remains is shared among the shareholders.

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Linkedin
• Pinterest

Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday


Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users

You Might Also Like

« PREV

NEXT »