Umar Danbatta, chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, has said the commission will carry out a service check on winner of the 9mobile auction to determine it ability to provide quality service.
The NCC boss also said that the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, will focus on the financial sta on the winner of the 9mobile auction.
Danbatta told newsmen on Thursday in Kano that, “these are measures we’re putting in place to ensure the survival of 9mobile and prevent a repeat of what happened.”
According to the news medium, Teleology Holdings Limited and Johannesburg-based data provider, Smile Communications, are the remaining bidders.
Both companies declined to comment. Barclays Africa was appointed as sale adviser, the NCC said in November.
The NCC said tougher financial health checks on the country’s biggest mobile phone companies could prevent a repeat of last year’s collapse of debt-laden Etisalat and help stabilise the industry.
Danbatta said the NCC had compiled reports on the financial well being of the local units of Johannesburg-based MTN Group Limited, the market leader with 52.3 million customers, Bharti Airtel Limited and Globacom Limited.
According to him, the regulator has identified some areas of concern and these “issues that can be addressed.”
Etisalat Nigeria, which has been renamed 9mobile and is for sale, plunged into crisis almost a year ago.
A consortium of banks seized control of a 45 per cent stake from Abu Dhabi’s Emirates Telecommunications Corporation. after it defaulted on a $1.2bn loan.
“Time is of essence,” the President of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria, Gbenga Adebayo, said.
“They can only get good value for this company for as long as it has good business,” he added.
Nigerian companies have suffered since the 2014 oil price crash triggered an economic contraction and sent corporate earnings plunging.
Rampant inflation reduced consumers’ purchasing power and the central bank’s tightening of capital controls led to a shortage of dollars, which companies need to pay for imported equipment and service foreign-currency loans.
The naira lost more than half its value against the greenback in that period.
Foreign investments in the telecommunications sector dropped 86 per cent to $33.6m in the third quarter of last year, compared to the same quarter the previous year, according to data from the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics.
Etisalat Nigeria would still be here, “but for the deterioration of the exchange rate,” Danbatta said.
He added, “The NCC will continue to put in place flexible regulations that will ensure the survival of telecommunications companies in the marketplace.”
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