An Appraisal of the Current Implication of Privatisation of Nigeria Telecommunication Limited

AN APPRAISAL OF THE CURRENT IMPLICATION OF PRIVATISATION OF NIGERIA TELECOMMUNICATION LIMITED (NITEL)(A CASE STUDY OF ENUGU ZONAL DISTRICT)

Decree No 25 of 1988 defines privatization as the relinquishment of all or part of the equity and other interest held by the federal government or its agency in enterprise whether wholly or partly owned by the federal government. It is the process through which equity holding of an enterprise is transferred form state ownership to private individuals or associates government sells its shares in the privatized enterprise and hands off participation in the ownership and operation of the firm.

Nigeria telecommunication limited signed agreement with PENT SCOPE  to mange some percent of the equity

 SCHOOL OF THOUGHT AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE STUDY

Communication is very vital in the national planning of any nation its role in the rapid economic development of the country cannot be over emphasized.Communication means the dissemination of  information to either individual of a large and small group of audience.  Telecommunication therefore means the art  and science of communicating over a distance by cable telephone, radio or television The transmission reception and the switching of signals electrical or capital by wire fibre or electromagnetic means are part and parcel of telecommunications.

According to national telecommunication policy (2000:1) the availability of an efficient reliable and affordable telecommunication system is a key ingredient for promoting rapid socio-economic and political development of any nation such a system must be universally accessible and cost effective.

The fact is the NITEL was contracted to a Netherland telecommunication industry called PENTASCOPE. Federal government of Nigeria have see that companies managed by private people are properly managed than companies managed by public. The new contracted company constituted a medical team to perform necessary surgical operation on NITEL to bring the company back at the leader in the communication industrial and to know if they can turn NITEL around make it a better company which they failed.

Also Read: Privatization and Commercialization in the Nigerian Economy

According to rein Zwolsman (2003:1) NITEL has discovered  that  people do have very high expectation  from them when you look at  the situation in NITEL, a lot of things are not in place and a lot of things are been monitored well. In most cases it has to do with structures, it has to do with process; it has to do with decision in the past.

The Netherland company mapped out three steps they will use to do their work. The first step is to create a stable network second step is to work on the capacity of the network because a number of the issues that NITEL have are due to lack of capacity in the network especially transport network third step is to develop a new business plan for NITEL.

Expectation were high federal government of Nigeria believed that the new company will make significant improvement in NITEL to make it a much better company but they failed.

• THE SCHOOL OF THOUGHT RELEVANT TO THE PROBLEM OF STUDY

The telecommunication network at the inception of NITEL was made up of ageing equipment and beset with operational problems leading to poor quality of service and loss in revenues.

The present status of our telecommunications service through inadequate to meet public demand is supportive of the national economic and political development in line with NITEL corporate objectives.3

In January 2001 federal government of Nigeria through Nigeria communication commission (NCC) issue license to firms that wants to operate on the global system of mobile (GSM).  The G.S.M  telephony has been descried as a blessing as this would make for the deployment  of the latest technology in telecommunications in the  country the firms operating are MTN V-MOBILE NITEL GSM GLOBACOM and other lines that are operating nation wide.

There are many problems that is facing NITEL that need to be addressed most of the problems are delay  dial tone which they are working on to improve it the second problem is inadequate capacity distribution network demand service lines to meet subscribers demand service discontinuities, slow response to system failures problem of inert-connectivity between NITEL and other networks, fraudulent particles by the operatives (Technicians).  Other problem which confronted NITEL PLC were abandoned   projects and problems of maintenance of repeater stations spares procurement, billing complaints and delay in remitting bank schedules and reconciliation of customer accounts.

In the final analysis it is the transition from vendor driven application oriented  progress that is driving the market quest for competition. The structural changes affecting the national telecommunication market have promoted vendors to scramble for global market position resulting in mergers takeovers and joint venture as well as heavy investment in research and development.

 DIFFERENT METHODS OF STUDYING THE PROBLEM.

The primary goals objectives of this research work is to see if privatization of NITEL will yield the desired divided for which public enterprises are sold all over the world privatization of NITEL to private hands with a view to introduce innovation and efficiency which among other things lead to high tendensity.

The method used in specifying the procedure for collecting and analyzing the data used in solving the problem at hand such that the difference between the cost obtaining various levels of accuracy and the expected value of the information associated with each level of accuracy is maximized.

The method used in studying the problem is from primary and secondary method.  It should for noted that greater part of data used for analysis were information the primary source.

Data from primary source were derived form the designed questionnaire and oral interviews.   The oral interview because necessary for the researcher to obtain vital from the organization concerning the current implication of   privatization of NITEL a case study of Enugu Zonal   district on which the study was based this technique was also used when verification of certain information gathered become relevant.

The primary data gotten is meant to know how the privatization of Nigeria telecommunication limited will improve the quality of service.

• SUMMARY

This project which is based on the current implication of privatization of NITEL a study of Enugu Zonal distract is a key to give judgment on the implication of privatizing NITEL.

Like earlier mentioned in the statement of the problem that defective  finding constant change of management team of NITEL dishonesty of employees excess government interference and misappropriation of funds were responsible for the lack luster problem of the organizaiton

There are several government owned business enterprise stated for partial and full privatization

However this study focused on the current implication of privatization of Nigeria telecommunication limited Enugu Zonal district. Hence there were some constraints such as time finance and distance.

The limitation of this research work arises form the fact that being a project based on NITEL Enugu Zonal District as a point of reference, its findings not fully and exactly be said to be true representation of the characteristics of all category of government enterprise or all Zones or branch of NITEL

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