Power, Works
and Housing Minister, Babatunde Fashola, in a letter to President Muhammadu
Buhari, has disclosed the termination of the concession contracts for the
management of Fiber Optic Network of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).
The contract
was with Alheri Engineering Company Limited, largely owned by African richest
man, Aliko Dangote; and, Phase3 Telecom Limited, linked to an in-law of former
Minister of Communications, Cornelius Adebayo.
Fashola, in
the letter dated October 31, 2017, with reference number FMP/OPS/05/1 obtained
by THEWILL faulted the process of the concession insisting that there was
breach of agreement, as well as conflict of interest in the entire
transactions.
“I write to
respectfully draw your Excellency’s attention to ongoing efforts by the
management of the Transmission company of Nigeria (TCN) to enforce its
termination of two failed Fiber Network concession Agreements, recover its
outstanding concession fees in the sum of usd 75,500,000.00 million from the
two concessionaires, and take position of and commercialize its critical fiber
optic infrastructure, which are essential for the stability and optimization of
the national grid,” Fashola wrote.
He informed
the President that going ahead with the concession would affect the stability,
optimization and continued expansion of the national grid, which, in turn, will
affect communication in the country generally.
“The
Concessionaires were to pay a concession fee of $40 million each for the use of
TCN’s asset to service their customers,” he continued.
“The
concession fee was not just for the right of way upon which the transmission
lines are constructed, but also for the use of the fiber optic network which
was built by TCN along with the transmission lines.
“The agreement
also provided for shelter fees of 2.5 per cent on gross revenue. Since 2006,
Phase3 and Alheri have paid only $2 million and $3.5 million concession fees
respectively.”
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