Reps to investigate pullout of Etisalat from Nigeria

The House of Representatives has mandated its Committee on Telecommunications to conduct an investigation into reasons for the collapse of Etisalat Nigeria (now 9mobile).

According to the lawmakers one of the reasons for the probe is to protect the Interests of Nigerian subscribers and other stakeholders:

The resolution of the of the House was sequel to the adoption of the prayers of a motion by a member, Hon. Saheed Akinade-Fijabi.

The Lawmaker while arguing the motion noted that Etisalat Nigeria (now 9 mobile) commenced business in Nigeria in 2009 after acquiring the unified access license spectrum in the GSM 1800 and 900 MHZ bands from the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) in January 2007

He said it thus became Nigeria s fourth largest telecommunications network operator with over 21 million subscribers and controlling about 12.9 per cent of the country’s telecom market share.

He further states: “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);

“Aware 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;

“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 miliion dollars but had 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.”

Fijabi expressed concern that 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.

ALSO SEE: 9mobile: Banks running out of patience

He however said that the take-over of Etisalat Nigeria which was renamed 9mobile by the banks is a clear violation of Section 38 (1) of the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003

According to him, the act  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”;

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When the motion was put to a vote by the Deputy Speaker, Yussuff Lasun, it was passed by a majority support of lawmakers and referred to the House committee on Telecommunications.

The committee is to report back in eight weeks for further legislative action.