- As Etisalat begins exit from Nigeria
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Monday injected 142.5 million dollars into the inter-bank foreign exchange, days after intervening in the retail segment of the market with 254.3 million dollars.
The spokesperson of the apex bank, Mr Isaac Okorafor, in a statement, said the CBN would continue to carry out its regular mediation in the market to keep the market liquid and guarantee the international value of the naira in line with its mandate.
A breakdown of Monday’s intervention indicates that the Bank offered 100 million dollars to dealers in the wholesale segment, while it allocated 23 million dollars to the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) segment.
Also, for those requiring foreign exchange for invisibles such as tuition fees, medical payments, business and personal travel allowances received 19.5 million dollars.
Okorafor said the CBN would not relent in ensuring transparency and efficiency in the sale of Forex.
According to him, the Bank has mandated dealers to make public their forex utilisation.
He therefore urged all stakeholders to continually play their roles to guarantee transparency in the market.
The CBN last Friday intervened in the retail segment of the forex market to the tune of 254.3 million dollars following bids received from forex dealers by the apex Bank.
The figure sold by the Bank was for companies in the raw materials, agricultural, airline and petroleum industry.
Meanwhile, the naira maintained its stand at the Bureau de Change (BDC) segment of the forex market, exchanging at an average of N364 to a dollar in Abuja.
In the meantime, Etisalat International on Monday said it had terminated a management agreement with its Nigerian unit, saying that it had given the business about three weeks to phase out the Etisalat brand in the country.
The Chief Executive Officer, Etisalat International, Hatem Dowidar, told Reuters that the exit process became necessary given that the firm had been unsuccessful at converting some of its dollar debts to naira.
The Nigerian Communications Commission and the Central Bank of Nigeria had recently intervened to save Etisalat Nigeria from collapse after it failed to pay the remaining $589m from a $1.2bn loan it took from a consortium of 13 banks.
Before then, all the United Arab Emirates shareholders of Etisalat Nigeria, including state-owned investment fund, Mubadala, had exited the company and left the board and management.
Etisalat, with a 45 per cent stake in the Nigerian business, had been ordered to transfer its shares to a loan trustee after it became obvious that it could not pay up the $589m debt of the original loan.
However, with the current development, Dowidar said, “The Nigerian lenders may try to continue to operate the company until they find a buyer; or they may merge the company with the existing players in Nigeria.”
He said it was tough to say what the lenders would do.
The Etisalat CEO added, “The brand agreement in either of these two scenarios won’t be a long-term thing, so we take out the brand; in the long term, Etisalat won’t be in Nigeria.”
He had earlier told Reuters that discussions were ongoing with Etisalat Nigeria to provide technical support.
“There’s a new board and we are not part of that company. We have sent our termination letter for the management agreement,” Dowidar said of the ongoing discussions with Etisalat Nigeria.
According to him, the parent company (Etisalat) has written down the value of the Nigerian business on its books and that transferring its 45 per cent stake to the lenders after loan renegotiation talks collapsed has no impact on the group.
When asked whether Etisalat would consider entering Nigeria again, he said, “The train has left the station on that one. Being in that market as an investor…are we willing to risk more money compared to the reward for the long-term?”
Meanwhile, most Etisalat Nigeria outlets in Lagos were either shut or almost empty when our correspondent visited some of them on Monday, an indication that the telecommunications company is gradually exiting the country.
Additional report from Punch
