JANUARY 16, 2018 – 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 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.”
