Wall Street Journal
Tuesday, January 6, 1998
World Watch

NIGERIA TO SELL PHONE MONOPOLY
There are about 600,000 telephones in Nigeria and at any given time only
about half of them work.  Now the nation's military ruler intends to
look to private investors to upgrade the state of phone service in the
west-central African nation of 100 million people.  Later this year the
government says it will sell off state-owned Nigerian Telecommunications
Ltd., and that will be the first of several state-owned companies to go
on the block.  But just how much is the company worth?  The military
authorities have been keeping financial matters like that close to their
chests, but some within the phone company value the assets at about $20
billion.

Nigeria profile:
Literacy rate -- 51%
Per capita GDP -- $1,437
1996 GDP growth -- +2.2%
1996 inflation rate -- 29.3%


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