NCC takes over NITEL’s training schools

Oluwaseun Ayantokun, Lagos - 24.03.2008

The Federal Government has directed the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to take over the three training schools of the Nigeria Telecommunication Limited (NITEL) at Oshodi, in Lagos, Kano and Enugu .

The NCC chairman, Engineer Ernest Ndukwe, disclosed this last week in Lagos where he was the guest of the state’s council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).

He said the take-over was considered necessary in the face of deterioration of NITEL and to add flesh to efforts of the commission through the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI), Abuja, established to provide Nigerians with relevant technical know-how for the telecom industry in the country.

According to him, renovation work was ongoing at the schools to prepare them for the task ahead as regional branches of the DBI. NITEL’s problem became more controversial lately when the Federal Government unilaterally revoked the sale of what is supposed to be the country’s first national carrier to Transcorp, a wholly owned Nigeria company.

The government took the step in view of the obvious failure to bring the expected turn-around to the fortune of the ailing company.