LAGOS — GSM operator, Vmobile, has launched legal proceedings for the liquidation of the first national carrier, NITEL for its indebtedness to it. This is coming barely two weeks after MTN, the biggest GSM operator, issued an ultimatum to the company on the same issue, reported exclusively by Vanguard.
The company said it had to take the drastic decision after exhausting all other reasonable avenues to get the company to liquidate its debt put at about N3 billion. Vmobile explained that the debt arose from interconnect charges with accrued interest which the national operator has not been able to settle fully since 2002. The company further indicated that its decision to go to court arose from the apparent lack of seriousness on the part of NITEL to settle the debt.
Giving an overview of the state of discussion with NITEL over the debt, Vmobile indicated that it wrote to the company on August 6, 2004 through its chief finance officer, asking for the debt to be settled, but when no reply was forthcoming, it had to write to its chief executive on September 6, and told him that the company’s refusal to settle the debt after several demands, amounted to anti-competitive conduct and could impair its ability to expand its network and improve on its service quality.
Three weeks later, Vmobile said NITEL replied through a letter from its Chief Finance Officer, Mr. Graham Moss, who said NITEL was “obtaining an update of where our two companies are in reconciliation process of agreeing and accounting for chargeable traffic between us and will revert with that position,” claiming that NITEL was “making arrangements to settle the resulting net amounts due for telephony traffic interconnecting our networks.”
Two weeks ago, MTN also gave NITEL a three-week ultimatum to either pay its debt of more than N5 billion or face legal proceedings. But NITEL General Manager, Corporate Affairs, Tayo Ekundayo, when asked by Vanguard, denied that the company had any debt dispute with MTN.
In 2002, barely six months after MTN and Vmobile (then Econet) commenced business, the two operators were forced to institute arbitration proceedings against NITEL with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) over interconnect debt. The NCC arbitration, which lasted about six months, resolved that NITEL should pay its indebtedness to the GSM companies; that invoices should be exchanged monthly and settled within three months and that payment due should not be delayed pending the settlement of a query over the account.
