A telecommunication company, 9mobile, is in travail following the readiness of Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), to sell and hand over the company to its new owner on January 16.
NCC Executive Commissioner, Stakeholders Management in a chat with newsmen said Barclays Africa, the financial adviser handling the sale of 9mobile, had the initial mandate of December 31, 2017 to conclude the sale of the company.
Citing reasons, the company wrote to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the NCC, asking for extension of date from December 31, 2017, to (approved) January 16, 2018.
Before now, three Nigerian banks and their foreign affiliates had taken over Etisalat Nigeria which was changed to 9mobile for allegedly failing to repay a loan of over N541bn it secured from the consortium in 2015. The Nigerian banks include Guaranty Trust Bank, Access Bank and Zenith Bank.
The development came after the telecom regulator, NCC, tried a couple of times to mediate issues between the telecoms company and the banks without results.
The loan facility totalling $1.72 billion (about N541.8 billion) involving a foreign-backed guaranty bond, was for Etisalat to turn around its network and expand its operations in Nigeria.
The banks claimed that Etisalat had failed to service the debt as agreed since 2016. They subsequently reported Etisalat to the banking sector regulator, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and its communications sector counterpart, the NCC.
