The Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Rural Development, Hon. Oladipupo Adebutu, has deplored the perennial impasse over the National Rural Telephony Programme.
Adebutu from Ogun State has, therefore, called for an urgent resolution of the current disagreement over the NRTP.
While acknowledging that current technologies, especially the Global System for Mobile Communications, had overtaken events in the sector, he said because of the huge sums of money the government had already spent on the programme, it was time a solution should be found to the prolonged stalemate over it.
According to Adebutu, “It will be recalled that Phase 1 of NRTP was accomplished with a loan of $200m from China Exim Bank and that despite the fact that the capital and interests have been repaid on the loan, and a further N300million paid as counterpart funding for Phase 11, the programme, quite sadly, has been aborted.”
The lawmaker noted that funds were being provided and money paid to security companies for protection of the programme’s equipment spread across various parts of the country and had become obsolete.
Adebutu, who raised the observation during a motion presented on the floor of the House of Representatives, further called on the Federal Government to embark on a process of divestment from NRTP by inviting private sector operators to inject fresh funds and current technology into the programme in order to get it off the ground.
This, he said would be in the best interest of the rural communities and the nation at large as opposed to a situation where the nation would be saddled with debt over a moribund programme.
The House of Representatives, however, resolved to refer the matter to the Committee on Rural Development for investigation and recommendation of a viable resolution.
It also charged the committee to ensure that the counterpart funds already paid for in Phase11 were utilized in the “Change Order” proposed in the light of the present difficulties.
