ABUJA, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua has instructed the new board of former state telecoms monopoly Nitel to privatise the struggling firm within the next 60 days, the country's vice president said on Monday.
Nigeria's privatisation agency invited bids a month ago for a 75 percent stake in Nitel and each of its subsidiaries, which include mobile unit MTEL, South Atlantic Terminal underwater cable (SAT-3) and analogue cellular phone units STAC and CDMA.
Several deadlines have come and gone for the privatisation but new investors have proved hard to find. Its fixed lines have fallen to less than 100,000 from five times that figure in 2001 and MTEL subscribers have dropped to a few thousand.


"Mr President has directed that the privatization of Nitel/ Mtel must be concluded in the next 60 days," Nigerian Vice President Goodluck Jonathan said during the inauguration of a new technical board for the firm. "The major challenge of this board is to resuscitate Nitel/Mtel and prepare the two companies for privatisation."
Nigeria ended Nitel's monopoly in Africa's most populous nation in 2001 and tried to sell the operator the same year. However, the preferred bidders failed to pay the $1.3 billion price tag by the deadline, leaving the firm in state hands.
Local conglomerate Transcorp later bought a majority stake but the government took back control in June, citing a lack of investment and unpaid debts in the three years that Transcorp had been involved in the company.
Nigeria came close to selling Nitel in late 2005 to Egypt's Orascom Telecom, but the government rejected the $257 million offer as too low.
Nitel's infrastructure has fell into disrepair during decades of inefficient state management. Lines malfunction, billing is erratic and staff go for months without pay.
The central bank last week named the firm as one of more than 200 defaulting debtors of five banks it bailed out with a 400 billion naira ($2.6 billion) capital injection.
The regulator said Nitel owed Oceanic Bank 7.8 billion naira while its CDMA unit owed Intercontinental Bank a further 3.6 billion naira.


I hope they wont sell us all in this country.