Lagos
Nigeria’s telecommunications regulator said tougher financial-health checks on the country’s biggest mobile-phone companies could prevent a repeat of last year’s collapse of etisalat and help stabilise the industry.
The Nigerian Communications Commission has compiled reports on the financial well-being of the local units of Johannesburg-based MTN Group Ltd, the market leader with 52.3 million customers, Bharti Airtel Ltd and Lagos-based Globacom Ltd, NCC Executive Vice-Chairman Umar Garba Danbatta said in an interview. The regulator has identified some areas of concern and these “issues that can be addressed,” he said. Etisalat Nigeria, which has been renamed 9mobile and is for sale, plunged into crisis almost a year ago.
