Nigerian telecommunications company Globacom, owned by billionaire Mike Adenuga (pictured), has reached an agreement with the local subsidiary of South Africa’s MTN to resolve their long-running dispute over interconnection debt. This was announced on Wednesday, January 17, by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), which is acting as a mediator between the two parties.
As a result of this agreement, the NCC decided to suspend Globacom’s gradual disconnection from MTN’s network for a period of 21 days while the two companies resolved any outstanding issues between them. The regulator insists that “interconnection debts must be settled by all operating companies as a necessary element to meet the regulatory obligations of all licensees.”
On 8 January, the NCC authorised MTN to partially disconnect Glo from its telecom network for non-payment of interconnection debts, the amount of which has not been disclosed. The regulator then gave the two parties ten days to find common ground. After this time, it would be impossible for subscribers to make calls to MTN, but they will be able to receive them.
MTN had already partially blocked Glo in July 2019 for non-payment of interconnection fees which amounted to N4.4 billion (USD 5.1 million). The suspension lasted for five days and ended when Glo made a partial payment of N2.6 billion and made commitments to settle the rest of the debt.
The NCC says it is “deeply aware” of the potential impacts that Glo’s partial disconnection from MTN’s network will have on telecom consumers and the operation of the national telecommunications network. The two operators alone have around 146.4 million mobile subscribers for a combined market share of 63.44%, according to the latest statistics from the NCC. The rest of the market is split between Airtel and 9mobile.
Source: Agency EcoFin
