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Transcorp Nigeria Business News

Nigerian Operators Blocked from Buying NITEL Mobile Assets

Oct 21

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NITELThe Nigerian government has decided that the country’s GSM network operators will not be allowed to buy the mobile assets of state-owned NITEL when it is eventually privatized. Although the government was originally looking to sell the company as a single entity, the government has now agreed to split the company into its component divisions and sell them separately.

Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Dr. Christopher Anyanwu, said that the decision was based on the advice of the National Communications Commission (NCC).

The four GSM networks, MTN, Etisalat, Zain, and Globacom will be allowed to bid for NITEL’s land line assets, although Glo will only be allowed to bid for the CDMA and international gateway assets and licenses as it already holds a land line license. Read the rest of this entry »

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Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Publishes List of Debtors/Non-Performing Loans for Bank PHB, Spring Bank, Unity Bank, Wema Bank, and Equitorial Trust Bank (ETB)

Oct 15

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Central Bank of NigeriaThe Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) yesterday made good its threat to publish names of non-performing debts – owed mostly by politicians, entrepreneurs, and shareholders/directors – whose companies secured loans totaling N450 billion from five banks. View the latest list.

The banks – Bank PHB Plc, Equitorial Trust Bank (ETB), Spring Bank Plc, Wema Bank Plc, and Unity Bank Plc – were those found wanting in the last round of the audit exercise embarked on by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

This culminated in the sacking and replacement of the managing directors and executive directors of the first three banks said to be in “grave situation” two weeks ago.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) asked the two other banks to recapitalize by June 2010.

The chief executives of the five banks are said to be having challenges in their debt recovery drive. Consequently, the bank CEOs pressurized the CBN into publishing the latest list in a bid to compel the bank debtors to pay up. Read the rest of this entry »

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Transcorp Nigeria Loses Bid to Stop Resale of NITEL

Sep 17

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Transcorp NigeriaA Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday refused the request by Transcorp to stop the resale of 51% of NITEL and its mobile arm, M-Tel. Transcorp had initially acquired the shares, but the government revoked the sale amid allegations of mismanagement of the incumbent telco.

Defendants in the suit filed by Transcorp are the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Federal Attorney General, National Council on privatization (NCP), Finance Ministry, and seven members of the interim board of NITEL. Read the rest of this entry »

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Nigeria Says 13 Investors Interested in NITEL Privatization

Sep 2

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NITELNigeria has received expressions of interest from 13 potential investors in the sale of, at least, 75% of NITEL, the former state telecommunications monopoly which it has been trying to privatize for years.

The Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) said it would evaluate interest from companies including the Nigerian arms of South Africa’s MTN and Emirates Telecommunications Corp (Etisalat), MTNL India, a group involving Spain’s Telefonica and Nigerian firm Globacom.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, is one of the world’s fastest growing mobile markets, adding 7 million new subscribers in the last quarter of 2008 alone, and has overtaken South Africa to become the biggest on the continent. That could make it attractive to foreign investors, particularly if NITEL’s M-TEL mobile unit can be bought at the right price. However, the Nigerian government has struggled to sell NITEL, largely because of the state of its fixed line infrastructure. Read the rest of this entry »

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Nigeria Sets Two-Month Deadline on NITEL (Nigeria Telecommunications) Privatization

Aug 30

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NITELNigeria’s government has set a 60-day deadline for the privatization of the state-owned incumbent telco NITEL, including its mobile subsidiary M-Tel. The announcement came on Monday as the Nigerian Vice-President, Goodluck Jonathan, appointed a new board to the company to oversee its stabilization.

NITEL is in financial difficulty and faces intense competition. The firm’s employees have taken strike action this year over unpaid salaries and severance packages, with workers in some instances going without pay for eight months.

Local press reports quoted Goodluck Jonathan as telling the board: “There are a lot of issues at stake since NITEL is a critical infrastructure not only for government but for all Nigerians. Your task is, therefore, very challenging as all of us want to see how NITEL will be properly privatized to yield the expected benefits.” Read the rest of this entry »

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Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) Chief, Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, Denies Owing Banks Debts

Aug 24

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Nigerian Stock Exchange

Nigerian Stock Exchange

Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, the Director-General of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), said she is not indebted to any bank, after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) last week listed her name among debtors to two domestic lenders.

“As a finance professional of the highest integrity, I unequivocally state that I do not owe any Nigerian or foreign bank,” Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, said in a statement published in the Lagos-based ThisDay newspaper today.

Central bank Governor Lamido Sanusi fired the CEOs of Afribank Nigeria Plc, Intercontinental Bank Plc, Oceanic Bank International Plc, Union Bank Nigeria Plc, and FinBank Plc on Aug. 14 after a CBN audit found the lenders were in a “grave situation.” Lamido Sanusi also injected N420 billion ($2.69 billion) into the banks to ensure they meet the minimum capital requirements. Read the rest of this entry »

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Nigeria Cracks Down on Top Bank Debtors

Aug 23

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Lamido Sanusi, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)

Lamido Sanusi, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)

Nigeria’s Elite Are Among Those Facing a One-Week Deadline to Repay Loans, or Risk Arrest, Freezing of Assets.

Some of Nigeria’s rich and powerful, long accustomed to a lifestyle of yachts, fancy cars, and businesses fueled by unchecked credit lines, have been put on notice.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Wednesday made the unprecedented move of publishing a list of what it says are the major debtors to five banks rescued in a $2.6 billion bailout, among them some of the wealthiest and most powerful people in Nigeria. Hours later, the country’s top anti-corruption unit, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, said the debtors had one week to repay their loans or risk arrest and seizure of their assets.

The list of more than 200 companies, individuals, and government bodies includes Nigerian billionaires; Nigerian Stock Exchange officials; energy and hospitality conglomerate Transnational Corporation of Nigeria PLC (Transcorp); the former governor of Nigeria’s richest state; and the Ministry of Finance.

“It has become necessary to use this medium to request the following defaulting customers of the affected banks to pay without further delay their indebtedness, failing which the banks will take all appropriate legal actions to ensure repayment,” the CBN said in a statement on its web site. Read the rest of this entry »

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NITEL Sale to Transcorp Suspended

Jun 29

Posted by Staff Writer in News | 1 Comment

Nigerian newspaper Vanguard reports that the federal government of Nigeria has deferred the sale of the country’s incumbent telco NITEL and its mobile arm M-Tel, opting instead to introduce a project team charged with bringing the two back to life before they are sold to a new core investor. Additionally, Lagos-based Daily Independent writes that the chairman of the technical management board of NITEL, Alhaji Abubakar Mohammed, has tasked the staff of the company and its wireless unit to ensure their networks are in operation within ten weeks. Staff have called upon the technical board to address the problem of funding, theft, and vandalisation of equipment as well as the payment of outstanding salaries.

According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, the federal government sold its 51% stake in NITEL to local company Transcorp for USD750 million in November 2006, retaining a 49% interest. Since then the telco’s initial 500,000 fixed lines in service have dropped to about 45,000; its workforce has declined from 12,000 to just 2,000; and the company is USD500 million in debt. In February 2009, Transcorp agreed to divest part of its shareholding in the telco and in late March the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) announced it was offering a 51% stake in the fixed line operator and 100% of its mobile unit. In late May Nigeria’s anti-corruption police charged the head of Transcorp and two other employees with fraud for embezzling around USD110 million belonging to NITEL and the following week the government revoked the sale of NITEL to Transcorp.

Visit Transcorp’s website …

From TeleGeography

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VIDEO: Investing in Africa – Transcorp Nigeria’s Tom Iseghohi

Jun 10

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Some excellent insights from Tom Iseghohi, CEO of Transcorp Nigeria. Highlights of this interview include when Mr. Iseghohi states that “… We at Transcorp believe that these huge opportunities within our marketplace can translate to investment opportunities for [US investors] … Our business is primarily focused on Telecommunications, which everyone knows is a growth industry in Africa … Take a small company, six years ago, like MTN out of South Africa. They invested $280 million in Nigeria and last year they had $2 billion worth of revenue and profits north of 50% margins. They made $1 billion from $2 billion of sales, in Nigeria alone. So it is a very exiciting industry. Telecommunications is hot. Financial Services is also very exciting. A bank in Nigeria, for example First Bank of Nigeria, returned almost 23% over the last five years … there are huge opportunities in Energy, Commodities, Telecommunications, and Infrastructure …”

With regards to the so-called political risks associated with investing in Africa, Mr. Iseghohi pointed out that “The perception is different from reality. The perception is that all of those ‘things’ exist, which is no different from the perception of India, China, and Russia a few years ago. The key to all of this is to get a strong local partner that understands how to execute within the local market and that also understands how to remove political barriers, and that when there are issues, how to get those issues resolved”. Read the rest of this entry »

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