Lawmakers to probe takeover of Etisalat Nigeria by 9Mobile

The House of Representatives has mandated its Committee on Telecommunications to conduct investigation into the takeover of Etisalat by 9Mobile.

The committee which is to report back to the House in eight weeks is to ascertain what led to the exit of Etisalat.

The decision of the House followed the adoption of a motion on the “Need to Investigate the Collapse of Etisalat Nigeria (Now 9mobile) in Order to Protect the Interests of Nigerian Subscribers and Other Stakeholders”, sponsored by a member, Saheed Akinade-Fijabi.

Leading the debate on the motion, Fijabi said the take-over of Etisalat Nigeria leading to company being renamed 9mobile by banks is a clear violation of Section 38 (1) of the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003 which provides that “the grant of a license shall be personal to the licensee and the license shall not be operated by, assigned, sub-licensed or transferred to any other party unless the prior written approval of the Commission has been granted”.

Etisalat Nigeria was formerly owned by three shareholders, namely Emirates Telecommunications Group Company (40 percent), Mubadala Development Company, Abu Dhabi (45 percent) and EMTS Holding BV (15 percent).

The lawmaker further explained that Etisalat Nigeria obtained a loan of $1.2 billion (377.4 billion Naira) in 2013 from thirteen (13) Nigerian banks which involved a foreign-backed guaranteed bond to finance a major network rehabilitation, upgrade and expansion of its operational base in Nigeria;

He further explained that Etisalat Nigeria had so far paid about half of the initial loan amounting to about 504 billion Naira with total outstanding sum of about 574 million dollars, but reneged on its debt servicing obligations after the intervention of the Nigerian Communications Commission and the Central Bank of Nigeria to restructure the loan and new repayment deadline.

“The failure of Etisalat to meet its debt servicing obligations with the banks since 2016 resulted in its foreign major shareholders pulling out and eventual take-over of the company by the banks”, Fijabi said.

When put up for a voice, by Deputy Speaker Yussuff Lasun, who presided over plenary, yesterday, the motion was unanimously adopted by members.

Advertisements