Nigerian Regulators Unaware of Merger Plans

Last week Nigeria’s Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs Omobola Johnson, made an official presentation to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on the government’s plans for merging the country’s telecoms and broadcasting regulators, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and National Broadcasting Commission (NBC).

However, local newspaper This Day quotes NBC director general, Yomi Bolarinwa, as saying that the commission is unaware of such a move by the government. ‘NBC is a government agency, we have not been informed by government of any merger, when government writes [to] us, then we will know. Now, we don’t have knowledge of such merger,’ the official said in a phone interview.

Airtel Enters Rwanda Market

Indian telecoms group Bharti Airtel has announced it has secured a licence to provide 2G and 3G cellular services in Rwanda, The New Times reports. 

The company plans to invest over USD100 million over the next three years, including USD30 million for the purchase of the operating licence. 

It aims to bring ‘affordable services and innovative products’ to the market, and plans to expand its wireless broadband network to all major towns across the country.

 In June 2010 Bharti Airtel acquired the African assets of Kuwait’s Zain Group, in a deal valued at USD10.7 billion. The company took over Zain’s operations in 15 countries, including Malawi, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Uganda.

Bharti will join two other mobile operators in the market: South Africa-based MTN Rwanda, which had a total of 2.794 million mobile subscribers at the end of June 2011; and Millicom Rwanda (Tigo), which is majority-owned by Luxembourg-based Millicom International Cellular and had a subscriber base of over 812,000 at the same date. A third operator, Rwandatel, had its mobile licence revoked in April 2011, after the company failed to meet licence obligations, such as coverage, quality of service and planned investment targets. Rwandatel is 80% owned by Libyan government investment vehicle LAP Green Networks, although telecoms regulator RURA said the decision to cancel its mobile licence had nothing to do with enforcing a United Nations (UN) resolution to impose sanctions on Libya, including the freezing of its assets, following unrest in the North African nation.

Visafone Introduces Low-Cost Packages

Nigerian CDMA network operator Visafone has introduced a range of value packages dubbed "Fantastic Visa Bundles". 

Head of Corporate Communications Joseph Ushigiale said customers will be able to make on-net calls at less than NGN 0.1 per second or NGN 0.50 per minute. 

There are three packages. The Weekly Bundle Package can be obtained by dialling *450*610# to get 50 minutes of on-net calls for NGN 100 valid for five days. The Monthly Bundle Package can be obtained by dialling *450*611# for 300 minutes' worth of calls valid for 30 days at NGN 300. The third package is the Mega Bundle Package, obtainable by dialling *450*612# to secure 2,000 minutes of call time for NGN 1,000 with a validity period of 30 days.

Glo Partners With UBA's Afripay For Mobile Money Service

Nigerian operator Glo Mobile has signed a memorandum of understanding with mobile payment specialist Afripay paving the way for the nationwide launch of a mobile money service.

Afripay is part of UBA Group, which earlier obtained a mobile money licence from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The MoU will allow Glo Mobile's mobile subscribers to open a mobile money account to store electronic money on their mobile phones and to use their mobile number as account number.

It will also allow users to transfer money to any mobile number, spend money directly from their mobile money account, and buy airtime for themselves and others. Afripay's mobile money product, which is branded as U-Mo, has been successfully test-run through select agents.

Nigeria Working on New NITEL Privatisation Bid

Nigeria’s Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), the agency tasked with overseeing the privatisation of fixed line incumbent Nigeria Telecommunications (NITEL), is finalising the process for a negotiated sale of the telco, after the latest attempt to privatise the ailing company was cancelled earlier this year.

Nigerian newspaper The Punch cites a spokesman for the BPE, Mr. Chukwuma Nwoko, as saying that the bureau is working out the details for the sale of NITEL and its mobile arm M-Tel. He also confirmed that a number of potential core investors had shown interest in the exercise but declined to disclose the identity of the firms.

In the last month, initial bidder Brymedia Consortium, local firm Syntel and Microfone Telecom Nigeria, an initiative of the Nigerian Capital Development Fund, have all reportedly expressed an interest in acquiring NITEL and M-Tel.

Meanwhile, Mike Adenuga, executive chairman of Nigeria’s second national telecoms operator Globacom, allegedly approached the government to purchase a stake in NITEL via a vehicle established especially for the deal.

Earlier this month that the BPE was given government approval to embark on a negotiated sale of NITEL, after the latest attempt to privatise the firm was cancelled in June 2011 when the reserve bidder, British Virgin Islands-based Omen International, failed to meet the deadline to pay a bid security. Omen was invited to re-register its interest in buying NITEL in March 2011, as preferred buyer New Generation Telecommunications repeatedly missed the payment deadlines for its bid of USD2.5 billion.

Omen offered USD956.9 million during the latest attempt to privatise the company, held in February 2010. The government began seeking a buyer for a minimum 75% of NITEL and 100% of M-Tel in July 2009 after previous majority shareholder Transcorp divested its stake earlier in the year.

Starcomms Announces Growth Startegy

Nigerian CDMA network operator Starcomms is working on two business models in order to enhance the value of investment of its existing shareholders, local newspaper THIS DAY reports, citing a statement from Starcomms’ newly appointed chief executive officer Logan Pather. 


According to the executive, the company is looking to acquire more spectrum to facilitate a complete nationwide rollout of its network and to make it fully ready for Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology. 


To achieve a nationwide rollout, Pather said that Starcomms would require investment of around USD60 million.

Fortis Mobile Money Hires Fundamo For Nigeria Deal

Nigeria's microfinance bank Fortis Mobile Money, which has been granted a licence to roll out mobile money services, has engaged Fundamo, a Visa company, to help deploy its mobile money offerings throughout the country. 

 CEO of Fortis Money Henry Nwawuba said the company would leverage Fundamo's understanding of 'bottom of the pyramid' mobile money services to provide low-value and high-volume mobile financial services to Nigeria's huge underserved population.

 With a population of over 140 million people, only 28 million bank accounts and over 70 million mobile subscribers, Nigeria offers a platform for growth in mobile money. 

Fundamo's platform will enable the company to deliver secure, convenient and easily accessible financial services to consumers, such as mobile money transfers, remittances, mobile bill payments, micro savings and prepaid phone top-up services.

Starcomms In Talks To Buy Multilinks

Nigerian CDMA operator Starcomms is reportedly negotiating a deal to acquire rival Multilinks, the local unit of Telkom SA, according to Nigerian newspaper THISDAY. 

Despite Telkom’s board having rejected a proposal by former CEO, Reuben September, to merge its Nigerian business with Starcomms back in January 2010, the pair are currently said to be negotiating a price for Multilinks, which was put up for sale in November 2010.

Since then, Multilinks was reported to have attracted interest from Etisalat Nigeria, but this was later denied by the UAE-owned company’s CEO Steve Evans. 

Telkom acquired a 75% stake in Multilinks on 1 May 2007 for USD280 million, and purchased the 25% it did not already own from Kenston Investments in January 2009 for USD130 million.

However, Telkom has failed to turn around the fortunes of the ailing company, which has struggled to survive in Nigeria’s fiercely competitive market, and wrote down the value of Multilinks by ZAR5.2 billion (USD751 million) in the financial year ended 31 March 2010. Telkom CEO Jeffrey Hedberg has estimated the ‘exit cost’ at anywhere between USD100 million and USD180 million.

Nigeria Invites Omen International to Bid for NITEL

Nigeria’s Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) has invited Omen International Consortium, the reserve bidder for state-run incumbent telco Nigeria Telecommunications (NITEL), to reregister its interest in buying the operator, after preferred buyer New Generation Telecommunications repeatedly failed to meet the payment deadlines. 


The British Virgin Islands-registered Omen consortium, which includes China Unicom and Fiber Home Technologies Limited, submitted a bid of USD956.9 million for a 75% stake in NITEL and it mobile arm M-Tel during the latest attempt to privatise the company, held in February 2010. The government began seeking a buyer for a minimum 75% of NITEL and 100% of M-Tel in July 2009 after previous majority shareholder Transcorp divested its stake earlier in the year.


Reuters reports that the BPE has now written to Omen asking if it would be interested in revalidating its reserve bidder status. ‘If your bid is revalidated, it would give the Federal Government the right to invite your consortium or enter into negotiations to take up the offer,’ the letter said, according to a BPE statement.

New Generation’s bid of USD2.5 billion was approved in October 2010, after an investigation into the bidding process led to an eight-month delay. The New Generation consortium – which comprises Minerva Group of Dubai, Nigeria’s GiCell Wireless and technical partner China Unicom – was asked to pay a bid security of USD750 million within ten days from 25 October and was given 60 days to pay the remaining USD1.75 billion. On 5 November the bid security deadline was extended by 20 working days and subsequently to 23 December 2010, after the consortium failed to come up with the funds in time.


However, New Generation failed to meet its extended payment deadline, and in January 2011 the BPE revoked the sale to New Generation and recommended Omen be invited to acquire NITEL, following approval from the National Council of Privatisation (NCP).

Glo-1 Launched

West African submarine fibre-optic cable system Glo-1, which was developed by Nigeria’s second national operator Globacom and French-US vendor Alcatel-Lucent, has been commercially launched, local newspaper Leadership reports.

The 9,800km cable stretches from the UK across West Africa and has landing points in Nigeria, London and Lisbon, connecting 17 countries to the rest of the world. Globacom’s chairman, Mike Adenuga Jnr, said Nigerians will now have the opportunity to compete with the rest of the world, while broadband access and other services, such as long-distance voice, will now become more affordable in the country.

Globacom contracted Alca-Lu to install the cable system in 2005, in order fill the void of international connectivity in the region. The USD250 million cable landed in Lagos in September 2009 and Accra in Ghana the following month, and has been ready for commissioning since July 2010. The cable has ultimate capacity of 2.5Tbps and is expected to provide faster, more reliable internet services at a lower cost.

Nigeria Targets 350 Nigerian Villages with Huawei Deal

MTN Nigeria has signed a deal worth over USD40 million with Chinese equipment supplier Huawei Technologies for the deployment of rural telephony infrastructure in roughly 350 villages across the country, local news source Nigerian Compass reports.

‘Our goal is to cover every village in Nigeria,’ Ahmad Faroukh, CEO of MTN Nigeria, said at the signing of the deal in Lagos, adding: ‘The first phase [of the project] will see 350 villages covered before the end of May 2011, with the support of our strategic partner, Huawei Technologies, while 500 villages will be covered in the second phase before the end of December 2011.’ Following research into Nigeria’s telecoms sector, MTN concluded that around 500 villages and communities and 40 million Nigerians do not have access to basic telephony services.

Under the project, Huawei will deploy environment friendly base stations that consume low energy.

Nigeria Approves Sale of NITEL To New Generation

The Nigerian government has approved the sale of ailing state-run incumbent telco Nigeria Telecommunications (NITEL) to New Generation Telecommunications, eight months after a panel was set up to review the sale process following confusion over the consortium’s ownership, Bloomberg reports.

New Generation – consisting of China Unicom, Minerva Group of Dubai and Nigeria’s GiCell Wireless – was revealed as the preferred buyer for the 75% stake in NITEL and its wireless unit M-Tel in February 2010, after beating four other hopefuls with a bid of USD2.5 billion.

However, initial confusion about China Unicom’s involvement in the consortium led to criticism that the process had been marred by irregularities and a lack of transparency.

Rather than approving the bid, the National Council of Privatisation (NCP) opted to inaugurate a committee to undertake further due diligence on the bidders of NITEL. In June 2010 the panel recommended that the deal be approved.

In a statement released yesterday the country’s privatisation body, the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE), announced that President Goodluck Jonathan has now approved the sale of NITEL to New Generation. The consortium has been asked to pay a bid security of USD750 million within ten days and will have 60 days to pay the remaining USD1.75 billion.

Telkom SA Prepares to Spread Into the Rest of Africa

SOUTH African Telecommunications operator, Telkom, has secured operating licences in east, south and west Africa, the company revealed on Monday in an interview.

Responding to questions, Telkom spokesman Pynee Chetty said the telecoms giant had secured operating licences in Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Swaziland and Namibia.
“Telkom’s ambition is to become a significant Information Communication Technology (ICT) player in Sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on the enterprise market.

“Apart from the satellite-based (SAT3) cable system, Telkom has invested in the new WACS, EASSy and SAFE submarine cables systems to further strengthen its position with regards to connectivity on the African continent,” said Chetty.

He said the operations in those countries consisted of consumer and enterprise solutions within the respective markets.

Chetty said Telkom would continue to service all these markets and acquire capabilities, through partnerships or own assets, to meet the demands of the local African enterprise and global multinational customers.
“The company continues to investigate opportunities in Africa and endeavours to expand into countries where customer demand warrants such actions.
“As far as the specific products and services are concerned, it is logical to utilise existing skills and capabilities acquired in the domestic market as far as possible when entering new markets,” said Chetty.

Kenya's Digital Village Project Gets IBM Boost

Kenya’s Digital Village initiative, which was rolled out in 2008 with the purpose of narrowing the digital divide between rural and urban areas, and accelerating the growth of ICT in Kenya, received a boost when a team of IBM Corporate Service Corps consultants (CSC) from seven different countries arrived in Nairobi for a one month project aimed at defining a rollout strategy for the project.

Under regulations introduced by the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) in 2009, each constituency in Kenya should have at least five digital centres, complete with computers and internet connectivity. IBM’s eleven-strong team will start work in Machakos, joining forces with the ICT Board and the Ministry of Information and Communication.

The IBM-guided initiative will run alongside similar programmes that are currently being rolled out by other Kenyan telcos as they seek to meet new regulatory requirements.

IBM CEO Samuel J. Palmisano commented: ‘People are on the ground in Machakos to help the government realise its aim of extending the reach of digital services to rural areas. This will form part of our drive to boost ICT use in countries like Kenya.

IBM is well known for helping public and private sector organisations around the world to leverage technology to drive innovation and do things smarter. The Kenya initiative is part of a programme in Africa which began in 2008 through which IBM has deployed teams to Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa’.

Zain Nigeria Enables Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo Via SMS

Zain Nigeria has introduced a new service that enables mobile phone users to keep connect with leading social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Yahoo via SMS (short message service).

The new Social Networking services will help users rise above the barrier of internet data access and enjoy a quick link up with friends, former school-mates, colleagues and notable personalities amongst others, on Facebook, Twitter and Yahoo simply by sending SMS to specified numbers

According to Deepak Srivastava, Zain Nigeria’s Chief Operating Officer, the new services demonstrate the company’s commitment to enhancing customers’ lifestyles by providing alternate means of blogging and social networking irrespective of the availability of internet data access on the PC or on data-enabled handsets.
Zain’s Twitter SMS service is designed to create direct access to tweets from customers’ mobile phones especially where there is no data access or they do not have data-enabled handsets. With Zain’s twitter SMS, subscribers can receive TWITTER notifications, tweet and update their profiles directly on their phones via SMS.

Yahoo Open Chat is an SMS-based service which enables customers to send and receive Yahoo chat messages, without the need for internet access. This service is exclusive to prepaid customers who have valid existing and operational yahoo accounts i.e. valid Yahoo user name and password.

To enjoy the Facebook SMS service, customers are expected to send “ON” to 40405 to activate the service on their phones, and follow all subsequent instructions.
On how to connect to the Twitter Service, he said, customers are required to send an SMS with the word, ‘START’ to 40404.

Srivastava said that customers can connect to the Yahoo Open Chat service by sending the letter L followed by Customer’s Username space Password to the short code: 38660, that is, L haykay2005 XXXXX to 38660, saying that customers are advised not to include @yahoo.com at the end of username.

The first three days of activating Yahoo Open Chat is free while customers are billed N100 for subsequent three days. Twitter and Facebook SMS cost N9 and N10 respectively per SMS.

eFive Choses Alcatel-Lucent For Undersea Cable

South African telco eFive Telecoms has selected Alcatel-Lucent to build a new submarine cable network linking the west coast of Africa to South America, the French/US equipment vendor has announced. The network will consist of two trunks – the first one connecting South Africa to Angola and Nigeria, and a second trunk linking Angola to Brazil.

Alcatel-Lucent has confirmed that it will be in charge of the project end-to-end, with responsibility for the system’s design, manufacture and installation. The cable will be maintained by Alcatel-Lucent through its Atlantic Private Maintenance Agreement (APMA), which currently covers over 100,000km of submarine cable infrastructure from the west coast of Africa to the Caribbean and as far north as Greenland.

Lawrence Mulaudzi, managing director of eFive Telecoms commented: ‘We believe that high-growth areas such as the African continent require the development of new projects. The planned submarine network will also provide cable route diversity to South America, making the most economical and operational sense in the current landscape’. Philippe Dumont, head of Alcatel-Lucent’s submarine network division added: ‘Growth in African internet and mobile telephony is driving service providers’ demand for more connectivity options to ensure higher reliability, as well as increased widespread access to bandwidth.

This project will further position Africa as a major hub for broadband connectivity’.

Starcomms Loss for H1 Falls

Nigerian CDMA operator Starcomms has reported a pre-tax loss of NGN2.94 billion (USD19.1 million) for the first half of 2010, news agency Reuters reports. The figure represents a fall from a loss of NGN3.68 billion posted in the same period a year earlier.

Meanwhile, the fixed-wireless company’s revenue fell to NGN16.12 billion in the first six months of 2010 from turnover of NGN16.92 billion generated in 1H09.

Starcomms has approximately 3.2 million CDMA customers in Nigeria, with a network covering 31 major cities, 22 States and covering 175 towns.

Ghana Says Glo Is Free To do Business

Ghana’s Business Day newspaper quotes the Minister of Trade and Industry, Hanna S Tetteh, as saying that Ghanaian start-up Glo Mobile Ghana is ‘free to do business in Ghana’, hopefully ending long running speculation on its Nigerian parent, Globacom’s, future in the country.

In May this year Nigeria-based Globacom which is itself majority owned by Nigerian petrochemical firm Conpetro, a venture of the entrepreneur Mike Adenuga, threatened to exit Ghana in the face of what it termed ‘interests’ seemingly hell-bent on sabotaging its nationwide launch plans.

At the time an unnamed source claimed that since Glo Mobile was awarded its GSM frequencies by the National Communications Authority (NCA), it has faced obstacles in terms of seeking approval for the swift deployment of its base stations, an encroachment on the frequencies it was awarded by the NCA and the repeated vandalism of its advertising billboards.

However, the minister has told Business Day that all obstacles to the telco’s operation in Ghana have now been removed. ‘To the best of my knowledge from the communications authorities, there were two issues with regards to Glo. The frequency that they were assigned to was not available because it was being partially used by the national security apparatus. But that frequency has been available to them since January, and so at the moment if they want to start their business it is possible for them to do so,’ she said.

Tetteh also went on to clarify the issue of Glo’s problems in securing permits to erect telecoms towers. ‘There was no ban on Glo,’ she said. ‘As at last year, we put a ban on the erection of new telephone masts. We did this because of the quality of the infrastructure and the hazardous way they were being put up in all sorts of locations.’ As such the minister claims the ban was on the industry as a whole and not designed to single out the would-be newcomer.

Starcomms In New Roaming Servive

Nigerian fixed-wireless operator Starcomms has announced the launch of an inter-standard roaming service allowing the company’s CDMA subscribers to roam on the networks of both CDMA and GSM companies in 221 countries across the world.

The new roaming service offers the operator’s customers seamless access to international mobile roaming on all wireless technology networks, greatly expanding Starcomms’ network coverage outside of Nigeria and simplifying the roaming experience of customers travelling abroad.

The launch was made possible through the signing of an agreement with hub-based mobile applications exchange solutions provider MACH, and inter-standard and converged solutions provider Accurius, earlier this year. The vendors’ solutions offer turnkey interoperability between wireless technologies, including CDMA, 1x EV-DO, GSM, GPRS/UMTS, WiFi, WiMAX and, in the near future, Long Term Evolution (LTE).

‘It has been our endeavour to provide our customers with the best services and our focus in providing international roaming opportunities is not just about the service but about the quality of the customer experience whilst roaming with their Starcomms service,’ Tushar Maheshwari, the CCO of Starcomms, commented, adding: ‘From now on we will ensure that our customers who have cause to travel outside Nigeria feel at home with all their contacts having access to them seamlessly.’

Glo Secures Gambia Licence

According to a company statement, Nigerian telco Globacom (Glo) has secured a licence to operate in Gambia. The concession is Glo’s sixth, and comes four months after the award of a licence in Senegal. The company’s other countries of operation are Nigeria, Ghana, Benin and Cote d’Ivoire.

On receiving the licence, Glo’s executive director for human resources Adewale Sangowawa said: ‘This adds impetus to our desire to provide the West African sub-region with an excellent communication network and cost-effective voice, data, video and e-commerce services.'

The licence allows Globacom to land its Glo 1 trans-Atlantic submarine cable in Gambia, with opportunities to extend the infrastructure to neighbouring countries. It also gives the company the right to carry traffic for major operators, the government and wholesale customers in Gambia.