Abbas Jimoh
5 October 2008
The federal government has denied replacing NITEL and Globacom with the Nigerian Communication Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT) as the national telecommunications carrier.
Minister of Information and Communications, Mr John Odey said in a statement in Abuja that such insinuation was contrary to the privatisation policy of the present administration.
"The attention of the federal government has been drawn to the media reports claiming that the federal government has begun the process of setting up another national carrier besides NITEL and Globacom.
"For the avoidance of doubt, the federal government wants to make it abundantly clear that the insinuation of giving NIGCOMSAT a national carrier status will be contrary to the privatization policy of this administration that is anchored on adherence to Due Process and Rule of Law," Odey said.
There were reports last Thursday that the federal government was in the process of transforming NIGCOMSAT into a national telecom carrier.
Odey insisted that, "As far as the federal government is concerned, its policy on Telecommunications remains private sector driven. Accordingly, the federal government will continue to create the enabling environment for the private sector to drive the industry.
"The role of the federal government in the telecommunications industry is to regulate and coordinate their services through its established Regulatory and Development Agencies such as the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and Galaxy backbone in an equitable and transparent manner in line with the established Acts."
"It is in recognition of the critical role of the private sector in infrastructure and social economic development of the country that the federal government established the Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission to give the private sector the needed support to drive the economy," Odey said.
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