In view of the barrage of news reports showing that banks are not very comfortable on the direction and slow process of talks with Etisalat Nigeria in the repayment of loans, the Vice President, Regulatory and Corporate Affairs in the group, Mr. Ibrahim Dikko has denied that discussions with consortium of bankers went deadlocked.
In a swift reaction, he said talks are not only ongoing with “Our bankers, but good progress has been made so far. We are optimistic that an agreement will be reached shortly and this will be communicated through the appropriate channels of the involved stakeholders”.
“We appeal to our media partners who have indeed been critical to the success of our business over the years, to await the official communication of the outcome of the ongoing discussions and not lend their credible platforms to speculative and presumptive analysis of the discussions.
According to him, “the immediate focus is to ensure that we not only sustain a positive performance, but that we are in a position to continue to grow the business, deliver excellent customer service and increase value to our stakeholders which includes our bankers”.
“We are optimistic that an agreement will be reached shortly. Nigeria’s No.4 mobile operator, with 20 million subscribers for a 14 percent market share, has the largest dollar exposure in Nigeria since the outset of dollar shortages plaguing Nigeria’s financial system.
Earlier reports had said that banks with the highest votes in the failed loan are threatening to take over the company or get their money paid as soon as possible so that they can shore up their books ahead of half year reports expected any time from next month by the regulatory authorities.
