A consortium of lenders led by
Access Bank Nigeria has taken over Etisalat Nigeria with effect from June 15th
after talks to restructure the payment of their loan debt of $1.72 billion
(about ₦541 billion) hit a wall.
Etisalat Nigeria had obtained
loans from 13 banks which included Access Bank, UBA, Zenith Bank, Guaranty Bank
and others, in the year 2013 in a bid to enhance their network rollout across
the country.
The takeover was announced on Tuesday
by the parent company, Etisalat Group.
Meanwhile, the Central Bank of
Nigeria (CBN) along with the Nigeria
Communications Commission (NCC) failed in
their attempt to convince the banks against the takeover as their effort did
not yield a favorable result.
Also, Ibrahim Dikko, the Vice
president, Regulatory and Corporate Affairs of Etisalat responded in
confirmation of the claim stating that other options were discussed with the
consortium of lenders as regards to the management of the company as well as
giving favorable response to the 23 million subscribers on the Etisalat network
.
He said: “Discussions are ongoing
regarding other issues such as the trading name during this transition phase.
Operations and services to our subscribers remain normal and will in no way be
affected as we continue to deliver quality services to our subscribers.”
He continued by saying: “We will
continue to tap into the rich, creative and innovative resources within our
workforce to build a stronger business upon the stable foundation we have laid
in our nine years of operations.”
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