The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have decided to hold a meeting with Etisalat Nigeria, Guaranty Trust Bank, Access Bank and Zenith Bank over the failure of the telco company to pay back the N541.8billion loan taken from the banks.
The Director of Public Affairs of NCC, Mr Tony Ojobo said this in a statement issued in Abuja. “After a meeting on Thursday afternoon in Abuja between the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta and the 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.”
“The meeting which was held at the CBN in Abuja was convened by the financial regulator at the instance of NCC and the telecom regulator to further deliberate on how best to stop the attempt by the banks to take over Etisalat.”
“At the end of the meeting, the CBN agreed to invite Etisalat management and the banks to a meeting tomorrow, Friday, toward finding an amicable resolution,’’ he said.
Ojobo said that the NCC as a regulator of the telecom industry had reached out to the CBN because it was convinced of the negative impact such takeover move would have on the industry. He added that NCC was worried about the fate of the over 20 million Etisalat subscribers and the wrong signals this might send to potential investors in the Telecom industry.
The banks have been having issues with Etisalat over the loan obtained sometime in 2015.
