Relief underway for Etisalat as NCC rallies CBN, affected banks Friday for talks
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has made apparent inroad over the possible amicable settlement of the multi-billion non-performing loans owed three banks by Etisalat Nigeria.
This indication is coming after a meeting Thursday afternoon in Abuja between the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele and his team, a decision was reached to intervene in the loan issue between Etisalat Nigeria and a consortium of commercial banks.
A statement signed by the Director, Public Affairs, Mr. Tony Ojobo disclosed that the meeting was held at the CBN Headquarters in Abuja at the instance of NCC, the telecom regulator, to further deliberate on how best to stave off the attempt by the banks to take over Etisalat.
At the end of the meeting, CBN agreed to invite Etisalat management and the banks to a meeting tomorrow, Friday, towards finding an amicable resolution.
The NCC as a regulator of the telecom industry had moved quickly to intervene earlier in the week by reaching out to the CBN
In an effort to abort the negative impact of hostile acquisition of a telecoms giant, NCC said it will continue to mediate over the matter pending when an amicable solution is reached by all parties especially the banks who had been under the pressure of AMCON to recover non performing loans.
Other clear reasons why the NCC intervened according to Ojobo is to protect the fate of the over 20 million Etisalat subscribers and to avoid sending wrong signals to potential investors in the nation’s Telecom industry.
