According to the Executive Vice Chairman, NCC, Prof. Umar
Garba Danbatta, the Commission has not shown any form of regulatory mistake but
rather is bent on ensuring that due diligence is followed in the exercise.
Speaking in Lagos on Monday, at a media parley, Genesis Hotel, Danbatta told
ITRealms that due diligence may have
taken a while to come, but insisted that NCC is determined to ensure everything
is on the right track.
The due diligence, he also said, has been categorized into two,
the one to be done by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and another by the Commission.
As said by him, after the emergence of the preferred bidder,
Teleology, CBN started its financial component and until they finish, NCC
cannot start its own exercise, which he described as ‘technical evaluation.’
He promised Nigerian telecom consumers that NCC would embark
on its technical evaluation of the preferred bidder of 9mobile as soon as possible without leaving anything to chance.
“This will come after CBN has finished its financial
evaluation of the preferred bidder,” he declared.
ITRealms recalls
that the financial adviser handling the sale of 9mobile, Barclays Africa,
recently named Teleology Holdings Limited as the preferred bidder, following
which the company advanced the payment of $50m being the initial non-refundable
10 per cent of the bid price required to keep the interest on 9mobile alive.
Prof. Danbatta, had earlier pointed out that failure to meet
the 90 days to pay up the balance of $450m, will result in losing the spot to
the reserved bidder, Smile Communications.
Chuks Egbune/GEE
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