Digital mobile service provider, the Nigerian Mobile Telecommunications Limited, requires about N53 billion to expand its network and make it the number one mobile operator in the country.
Managing Director of the company, Mr. Aad Loois, stated this during a chat with reporters in Abuja on efforts to raise money to meet the demands for the company�s service in different parts of the country.
�Sometimes people ask why we don�t want to be the number mobile operator in the country. The reason is simple. We don�t have enough finances.
�If I see somebody who can give me the money, I would make this company the number one mobile operator in the country. The money we are talking about is not small. We require about $400 million,� Loois said.
To raise this finance, the company, he said, had started discussion with some operators in the finance industry for syndicated loans.
One of the syndications, according to him, was led by United Bank for Africa to raise the sum of N5 billion for the company last month. The syndicated finance was subscribed to by five other banks.
The managing director added that the loan would soon be rolled into a N15 billion bridge facility, which would be subscribed to by 15 financial institutions in the country.
The bridge facility, according to the company, would be spent to further expand of the network as well as settle debts incurred in the expansion contracts awarded to ZTE, Motorola and Ericsson, earlier last year.
Although the contract, which would increase the company�s installed capacity to 1.2 million lines, was supposed to be completed last year, it is yet to be completed, prompting some criticisms from several sections of the country.
