A concerned group – Business Renaissance Group (BRG), has called for the review of the entire bidding process leading to the sale of 9Mobile.
The group said it is high time the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) stepped in for the sake of sanitising the bidding process stating that it was questionably modified close to the climax of the process.
They further said the two regulators should not deter to intervene to keep the telecommunication sector and the entire business environment in the country on transparency and cooperate governance best practices.
The non-governmental organization, said the emergence of Teleology Holding Limited as preferred bidder for the sale of 9mobile as announced by Barclays Africa, the Financial Adviser handling is faulty in due diligence and transparency.
The group made this known in a signed statement made available on Wednesday.
According to the concern group Barclays Africa, the Financial Adviser handling the sale of the Telco has anointed Teleology Holding Limited against the procedure guiding the bidding process and eventual announcement of the preferred winner
The letter signed by BRG President, Mazi Omife and co signed by BRG Secretary, Dr. Funso Akomode, accused Barclay to have issued a notification to Teleology Limited as the preferred bidder of 9Mobile earlier than February 26, 2018 claiming it was hasty, preemptive and anti-procedural.
It buttressed that, in a meeting held with the interested bidders on the 26th of January 2018, Barclays gave the two finalists in the bid process:Teleology Holdings and Smile Telecoms Holdings the opportunity to increase their bid for 9Mobile within 30 days which brought the deadline date to Monday February 26, 2018.
The group therefore wondered why Barclays could not wait till the 26th of February 2018 before instead its preemptive announcement of a preferred winner.It therefore alleged that Barclays had changed the rules while the game was at its climax.
The group further recalled that Barclays had earlier affirmed that any preferred bidder on selection will need to sign a Sales Purchase Agreement immediately and will have to instantly pay a non-refundable deposit of USD 50 million.
It decried a situation where Barclays has now given its announced preferred bidder 21 days to pay the non-refundable fee of USD 50 million.
According to the signed letter “this is a classic case of bending the rules and shifting the goal post to favour a particular team.”
The group further underscored its allegation stating that some of the earlier entrants for the bidding dropped out because of the shoddy and less than transparent handling of the entire bid process by Barclays Africa.
It also claimed that at least two major vendors of 9mobile rejected the financial offers of the preferred bidder and had no confidence in weak and unrealistic business plan presented.
It therefore wondered how such a bidder with questionable business plan would be able to sustain and improve the operations of 9mobile.
It therefore called on the regulatory authorities especially the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to take more than a passing interest in the bid process.
It advised that instead of the regulators especially NCC to merely give a stamp of approval to the seemingly contrived result by Barclays, the commission should undertake a review of the entire process
with a view to ensuring that strict adherence to the canons of corporate governance and transparency are upheld in the 9mobile bidding process.
