LAGOS, Nigeria-The federal government of Nigeria began advertising in October, soliciting bids for majority control of state-run companies, including Nigeria Telecommunications.
Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, the country’s military ruler, announced in July he plans to sell a 60-percent stake in major companies now controlled by his government.
By year’s end, the Nigerian government hopes to offer for private sale a 40-percent interest in Nitel to a strategic foreign investor or investors. The administration also intends to sell an additional 20 percent of the carrier through an initial public offering of equity to be sold within, and possibly outside, the country.
The privatization program is part of a series of steps the country’s rulers have planned in order to attain a democratic government in Nigeria.
