Two telecommunications operators, Emerging Markets Telecommunication Services Limited (EMTS) trading as 9mobile and Mafab Communications have received a total of N236.87 billion in a combination of debt and equity investment from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The fund was disbursed under the Critical Infrastructure Investment Fund (CIIF) program of the bank.
Specifically, EMTS received N130 billion in debt funding for infrastructure while Mafab, the latest entrant into the telecom space received N64.87 billion, according to the CBN Development Finance report.
In addition, Mafab also received the sum of N42 billion as equity from the CIIF initiative.
Purpose of the funding
According to the CBN’s document, the CIIF was for intervention in critical infrastructure. Part of the investment was to support the acquisition of a 5G license for Mafab.
- Recall that Mafab in December 2021 secured 5G license from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) alongside MTN Nigeria. The company paid $273.6 million for the 5G Spectrum license.
- For EMTS, the N130 billion was to support its telecom equipment upgrade for improved services.
- While the apex bank described the status of the program as ‘ongoing’, it noted that N54.22 billion of the debt provided for the two telecom companies is already ‘overdue’ for repayment. However, the companies are yet to make any repayment according to the report.
What you should know
The two companies that have received the CBN intervention fund are currently lagging in the telecom market. While the CBN noted that the CIIF program was established in 2019, it is unclear when the funds were disbursed, but it is clear that the impact of the investment is yet to be seen on the companies.
9mobile, which has been a distant 4th GSM operator has consistently lost subscribers to other players.
- As of December 2023, 9mobile’s total active subscriptions stood at 13.9 million according to data released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), while MTN, Airtel, and Glo had 87 million, 61.8 million, and 61.6 million customers in that order.
- In recent times, there have been complaints of poor quality of services on the 9mobile network a, a development, that has seen the telco losing customers to other operators through number porting.
- In December 2023, for instance, NCC’s number porting data shows that 9mobile was the biggest loser as 2,059 customers ported out of the network. This was after topping the losers chart in the preceding month of November as 1,646 customers ported out of its network.
On its part, Mafab trading as Mcom, which acquired a 5G licence in December 2021 has remained in limbo in the telecom market. While the company announced its official launch in January last year, its SIM and router are not visible yet in the market, unlike those of other operators.
