According to Ayeni, the consortium’s efforts at overhauling the entire cable system was ongoing while 10,000 Nigerians would be employed to set the companies in a prime spot to compete with other players in the market.

READ: $1 billion injected in defunct national carrier by NATCOM, operations to begin in March

The Hon. Saheed Fijabi-led committee, while expressing satisfaction with NATCOM and its work-plan, directed both the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to meet and discuss the sales of the two national telecoms firms.

The meet, according to the committee, was to review the commercial and technical areas of the sale as regards how they affect the telecommunications regulatory body and the BPE.

The committee however stated that inasmuch as NATCOM did all that was required of it, despite not been given any form of waiver by BPE and NCC in the process leading to the sales, it maintained that it was however necessary that the grey areas of NITEL’s indebtedness be sorted out by the BPE and NCC.

The house committee also instructed the BPE and NCC to report back to it after the said meeting.