Nigeria has capacity for 50m ‘phone lines -- Obasanjo
From KABIRU YUSUF,A buja

With about six years of successful launching of the long awaited easiest way of communication -- GSM -- in the country, President Olusegun Obasanjo last Friday evening said that Nigeria has the capacity for 50 million telephone lines.
The president who was speaking when a delegation of Celtel Nigeria Limited paid him a courtesy call at the State House, further said that still there is room for more companies to come to Nigeria and invest.
“Our economy is growing; the opportunities are huge. I believe one third of Nigerians can have telephone lines, and that is close to 50 million lines”, he stated.
The president said government had done its duty of providing the enabling environment for the telecommunications sector to thrive, and challenged all interested to take advantage of the opportunities.
Earlier, Dr. Sa’ad Al-Barak, Chief Executive Officer of MTC, the Kuwaiti parent company of Celtel Nigeria, has told President Obasanjo that they had invested over $1 billion since buying 65 per cent of Celtel Nigeria in April 2005, and planned to invest a further $1.4 billion this year.
He said Celtel Nigeria would raise the number of its subscribers from the current 6.5 million to 11.4 million by December this year.
Chief Gamaliel Onosode, Chairman of Celtel Nigeria , in his comments, said Celtel had a staff strength of over 2,500, with many more Nigerians engaged in spin-off jobs.