The National Council on Privatisation (NCP) has ratified the sale of the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) and Mobile Telecommunications Limited (MTEL) to NATCOM Consortium at the price of $252 million.

According to the chairman, technical committee of the council, Atedo Peterside, who spoke to State House correspondents in Abuja, after a meeting of the council chaired by Vice President Namadi Sambo, with the ratification, documentation and payments would now follow.

“At the end of the privatisation exercise, there was one bidder. Two were pre-qualified initially but only one attained the pass mark. That was NATCOM Consortium with $252 million.

“The NCP has confirmed the process. We now have a preferred bidder ratified by the NCP. Usually, what follows now are documentation and payment,” he said.

Also speaking, Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Musa Mohammed Sada, said the council also reviewed reports on the monitoring and evaluation of the entities so far privatised.

He said the exercise was carried out to ensure that the objectives of privatisation were met by the new owners, saying most of the companies evaluated were not doing badly.

Sada, however, said the council observed that the firms needed to be supported through favourable government policies.