Regulators’ interventions save 3000 jobs at 9Mobile

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has challenged the new board of 9Mobile to demonstrate technical competence in managing the operations of the company going forward.
 
The Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, who stated this in Abuja, at the weekend, while receiving the board of 9Mobile, led by the telco’s Chairman, Alh. Nasir Ado Bayero, said the company must be up and running if it must remain competitive.
  
Danbatta said that regulatory intervention from NCC and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) helped in saving several billions of dollars of investors’ money in Emerging Markets Telecommunications Services (EMTS), trading as 9mobile, preserving over 3,000 direct jobs and putting the telecom company on the path of recovery.

Danbatta specifically called on the EMTS management to ensure it runs process-driven operations that make all its stakeholders happy on a long-term basis in line with the provision of the 2016 Code of Corporate Governance for Telecommunications Industry, whose provisions have become mandatory on all licensees to comply with.
   
Earlier, Chairman of 9mobile, Alh. Nasir Ado Bayero told his hosts that his company was appreciative of the role NCC has been playing in piloting the affairs of the telecoms industry.
 
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank the NCC for giving us this chance to explain and present ourselves to the Commission. We are most grateful to the EVC and we, indeed, commend the NCC’s collaborations with the CBN and Federal Government for intervening at the time they did,” he said.
  
In his remarks, Ag. Managing Director of 9mobile, Stephane Beuvelet, who was excited that the telecom company has been put on the path of rebound, said in the last three months of having new management and board in place, “9mobile subscriber base rose from 15.3 million to over 16 million.”
 
He said 9mobile subscribers stood at over 20 million before the crisis started but dropped to around 15 million in the wake of the incidence that led to its being taken over by new investors.
   
He added that the number of subscribers on its Long Term Evolution (LTE) platform subscribers stood at 192,000 back in November, 2018 but has now exceeded 235,000.
 
“What all these data point to is that we have actually, in a sense, restored trust in our subscribers who reactivated their Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards and we are quite pleased about this rebound which we are ready to sustain. However, we will continue to seek the support of the regulator in sustaining our investment in Nigeria,” he said.