Nigeria’s fourth mobile operator, 9Mobile, may go under fresh heat this week, as creditors, among them infrastructure sharing company, seek ways to squeeze the phone company to pay the monies it owed them.
The creditors’ plan is coming as news filtered from the company’s office at Banana Island that some of its management staff were already resigning spurred by claims that the company’s new owners were not leading it on assured paths.
The worst scenario that may come over the company is the prospect of Teleology Holding seeking a court injunction, this week, on alleged document falsification and forgery. The Managing Director of Teleology Holdings, Adrian Wood, who provided the technical, financial and legal qualifications for 9Mobile acquisition by Teleology Nigeria (TN) is claiming he had been cheated out of the company through documents falsification and forgery, during the process leading to the acquisition of 9Mobile. Teleology Holdings may also go public with its claims should it get an order from the court.
Afriexim, which gave 9mobile $251 million, after it got guarantees from the Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigeria’s apex bank, wants its money back. The money was a short term loan, advanced Teleology Nigeria to enable it meet up with the financial requirement for acquiring 9Mobile.
The whole sum of money had been due for payment before January this year. But when it became difficult for TN to pay the whole sum of money at once, it went into renegotiation with Afriexim and got a reprieve that allowed it to pay $50 million by January. January came and went without the company meeting the renegotiated payment terms.
When Afriexim gave TN the $251 million loan, the understanding was TN would soon raise the money from shareholders and long term lenders to pay back the financial institution. But that does not seem to be happening as expected.
Sources close to the financial institution hinted that it would go on a ferocious loan recovery drive sometimes this week, as 9Mobile officials had given assurances that it may get a lifeline soon.
While Afriexim is set to pull the rope at 9Mobile’s neck from one end, anytime this week, infrastructure provider, I H S also plans to pull the rope at the other end by shutting down, its infrastructure platforms on which the 9Mobile is running its services.
eWorldNews also gathered that workers are leaving the company in droves because they do not see any immediate resolution of the company’s protracted problems. As many as five managers and a director, Regional Sales, Mr Victor Nwokobia, are said to have resigned by last week.
It would be recalled that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in December 2018 gave disconnection approval to mobile network operators (MNOs) to disconnect their debtors over rise in interconnect debt and failure of the affected operators to pay.
Up to 21 days, window was given, by the NCC, to the indebted companies to make amends or risk disconnections.
The Commission derived its powers to grant operators to disconnect indebted partners from their interconnect networks from Section 103 of the Nigerian Communications Act 2003 and the Guidelines on Procedure for Granting Approval to Disconnect Telecommunications Operators.
An official of Association of Licensed Telecommunications Company (ALTON) said the matter interconnect indebtedness amongst Nigeria’s telecoms operators is a complex one that it would be difficult for any services provider to disconnect indebted companies. In the first place the aggrieved parties, who are making claims and counter claims on the level of indebtedness, are unwilling to come forward for the resolution of interconnect disputes amongst them.
Our reporter gathered that a recent meeting called by the Nigerian Communications Communication (NCC) discuss the matter was rebuffed by all the parties.
Officials of 9Mobile could not be reached at the time of going to press.
