Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) and the three creditor banks will on Friday meet on what may now be the fate of the embattled mobile network operator-Etisalat Nigeria- over the lingering loan facility, totaling 1.72 billion dollars (about N541.8 billion) issue with the three commercial banks and their foreign allies.
This emergency meeting, as gathered, was part of intervention by the telecommunication regulator,NCC, to protect the over 21million Etisalat subscribers whose fates, the commission said, were considerably at stake, as the financial institutions mounts threats to confiscate the telecommunication operator’s business and assets.
In a statement, the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta and the CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele met Thursday and arrived at a joint decision to intervene in the matter with the view of reaching amicable resolution by tomorrow.
At the end of the meeting on Thursday, according to the statement issued by Director of Public Affairs of NCC, Mr Tony Ojobo today, the CBN agreed to invite Etisalat management and the banks to a meeting tomorrow, Friday, toward finding an amicable resolution.’’.
The NCC as a regulator of the telecom industry, Ojobo further stated, had moved quickly to intervene earlier in the week by reaching out to the CBN because it was convinced of the negative impact such takeover move by the banks would have on the industry.
A consortium of some foreign and Nigerian banks, including Guaranty Trust Bank, Access Bank and Zenith Bank, have been having a running battle with the mobile telephone operator, over the loan facility it obtained in 2015.
The banks said their attempt to recover the loan by all means, was fueled by the pressure from the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON), demanding immediate cut down on the rate of their non-performing loans.
Ojobo said NCC was worried about the fate of the over 20 million Etisalat subscribers and the wrong signals this might send to potential investors in the Telecom industry as it was reported that on March 8, Etisalat had been taken over by three banks because of its N541.8 billion debt.
However, the Head of Public Relations, Etisalat Nigeria, Ms Oluseyi Osuntedo, dispelled the talk that banks had taken over the company. Osuntedo, in Lagos said that discussions were still ongoing between the banks and the company.
“Discussions are going on; nobody is taking up the company. “It is not true that we are being picketed, whoever gave the information is not telling the truth,” she said.
NCC appeared not to be favourably disposed to the takeover proposal as it believed that Etisalat is not only viable, but also willing and able to negotiate the servicing of its loans.
Etisalat is Nigeria’s fourth largest telecoms operator with about 21 million subscribers as at January 2017, according to the NCC.
It commenced business in Nigeria in 2009.
