Following the 1999 Constitution of the Fifth Republic of Niger, SONITEL was to be privatised, and in 2001, after an unsuccessful round of offerings, the majority of the companies shares were sold.
[5][6] Following mobile phone competition, SONITEL was widely criticised for poor performance,[7] faced a series of protests and strikes by its workers over pay and conditions,[8] and accumulated debts of 40 billion FCFA despite a 140% increase in user fees.
[9] On 13 February 2009, the government of Niger announced it was "canceling" the privatisation of SONITEL and its subsidiary SahelCom (which handled mobile communications), although it hoped to eventually re-privatise the company.
The Minister of Communications stated that the process had "failed", and the government would retain a 100% share in SONITEL, and form a new administration of the company.
[9] An attempt to sell both companies to Libya's sovereign wealth fund in 2011 failed because of the beginning of the First Libyan Civil War.