Chinese and Libyan shareholders in a Niger telecoms firm are to be removed as its owners for poor management of the company, a Niger government minister said Friday.
The joint Chinese-Libyan venture Dataport bought a 51 percent stake in Sonitel when it was privatised in 2001, with the government retaining 45 percent and company staff holding four percent.
"Dataport will no longer hold any part of Sonitel's capital or its subsidiary Sahel-Com … (both) will come under state ownership from February 20," Niger's Communications Minister Mohammed Ben Omar said in a statement, describing the privatisation as a "failure."
Last December, Sonitel employees protested in Niamey, calling for the government to renationalise the company, which is saddled with more than 60 millions euros of debt.
The government's move means Dataport, a joint venture between China's ZTE and Libya's LAAICO, will lose the two landline and mobile licences it was awarded almost eight years ago.
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