THE Nigerian government has approved a $10bn development plan for the state-run telecoms company NITEL, casting doubt on its place in the country’s slow moving privatisation programme. Communications Minister Mohammed Arzika said NITEL would be asked to provide 625.9bn naira over four years in internally-generated revenue for investment and find an additional 500bn naira from investors or banks. “It is going to be a very massive undertaking. NITEL intends to do it in partnership with investors or banks,” he said. The plan would develop NITEL’s operations and network nationwide over four years from 2000 to 2004 at a total investment of over one trillion naira (around $10bn dollars), he said. NITEL is widely criticised by Nigerians for the high cost and scarcity of phone lines – there are now only around than 500000 landlines operated in the country, or four lines per 1000 people in Nigeria, making one of the lowest telecommunications access rates in the world.- AFP