The Bureau for Public Enterprises, BPE, yesterday cleared three firms to bid for the liquidation of the Nigerian Telecommunications Plc, NITEL, and the Mobile Telecommunications Plc, MTEL.

…Airports pay N130m, banks’ branches – N85,000 monthly…PHCN, conduit pipe for looting – customers

The Federal Government through the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, is fleecing Nigerians of about N3.41 trillion ($19.6 billion) annually through outrageous electricity bills, which is not commensurate with the amount of power supplied to consumers.

If we neglect to reduce the development gap between the Niger Delta and the rest of Nigeria and the oil wells dry up or oil ceases to be a revenue earner for Nigeria, then we will all be bowailing the re-enactment of the Olobiri metaphor, according to Pastor Power Ziakede Aginighan, a former acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). Aginighan spoke in a paper presented at the third Ijaw Foundation Convention held in Houston, Texas, US. Extracts from the presentation:

Eleven years after former President, Olusegun Obansanjo granted licenses to 18 individuals to construct refineries in a bid to open up the country’s downstream sector of the petroleum industry to private investors, there are indications that the government will not achieve its aims, as issues bordering on financing are hindering the construction of refineries by the investors.

The management of PHCN Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company has said that the fire incidence that occurred at the Ikeja West Transmission station was as a result of some defective transmission transformers.