By Baron Ike
New Board members for Etisalat Nigeria were on Tuesday, July 4 unveiled with a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Joseph Nnanna named as chairman. Nnanna replaces Hakeem Osagie-Bello who resigned last week voluntarily.
Other board members include Boye Olusanya who was appointed as chief executive officer (CEO)to take over from Matthew Willsher, while Funke Ighodaro is to take over from Olawole Obasunloye as chief finance officer (CFO). Also unveiled were Oluseyi Bickersteth and Ken Igbokwe.
The resignation of Bello-Osagie, on Friday, June 30 cleared the coast for intense lobbying and intrigue for his position, and that of the directors who also recently threw in the towel.
Bello-Osagie and his directors left last week from the telecommunications firm amid festering crisis over indebtedness running into millions of dollars.
Bello-Osagie’s resignation was sequel to the approval of a restructuring plan for Etisalat.
He had planned to quit should the creditor banks make good their threat to take over the affairs of the firm. Now that seems a fait accompli.
Armadanews.com had reported that the banks that staked money in the company and whose managements are now likely going to take over the running of Etisalat were putting everything in the mix to position their preferred candidates for the top positions.
They not only want a stake they want a firm control of affairs in the company, said sources.
Etisalat Nigeria had obtained loans of more than $1.2 billion from 13 banks in 2013 – Guaranty Trust Bank, Access Bank, Zenith Bank, UBA, Fidelity Bank and First Bank, among others. to refinance an existing commercial medium term debt of $650m and continue its network rollout across the country.
Some of the bank’s investor relations team told Reuters that Etisalat owed GT Bank N42bn, Access Bank N40bn and Fidelity Bank N17.5bn.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) had intervened to prevent the takeover of the company, but their efforts did not yield the desired result.
The CBN and the NCC were believed to have entered into the fray to avoid a potential problem that could scare foreign investors from the telecoms sector. They also wanted to save huge losses which the liquidation of Etisalat could have caused.
The top regulators had announced a temporary reprieve for Etisalat that initially put out a receivership action against the telecoms firm, giving it some time to hash a deal out that would see the banks get their money back.
Sources close to the intrigues for new directors and chairman of Etisalat told Armadanews.com at the weekend that another flood gate of crisis may be looming going by how the interested banks and their owners are approaching the composition of directors and the chairman.
“We hope the composition of the directors and the new chairman will not breed another trouble for the already troubled telecom company. You know the big names in the banks and their knack for ruthlessness and take all syndrome. That is the fresh fear,” the sources said.
Bello-Osagie’s resignation took immediate effect according to a statement which states that, “Although the chairman had planned to leave immediately the banks made the take-over move, he opted to tarry until a road map for the company was finalised.”
The statement continued: “The timing of the resignation was strategically delayed till now when stakeholders have agreed a plan and come more than a week after Mubadala Development Company directors tendered their resignation.
“The development also reflects Mr. Bello-Osagie’s deep commitment to protecting the interest of all stakeholders.
“It is now expected that Etisalat Nigeria under its new shareholding structure will navigate through its current loan repayment challenge with minimum impact.
“Over the last several months, the chairman has worked extensively with critical stakeholders to prepare clearly articulated strategies and robust road maps that will mitigate the impact of the new shareholding restructuring and realignment on the operations and management of the 4th largest telecoms player in Nigeria.”
With the failure of Etisalat to restructure its loans amounting to N541 billion, the telecommunications firm recently announced a share restructuring which will see the 13 commercial banks take over control of shares in the company.
A statement which Ibrahim Dikko, Vice President, Regulatory and Corporate Affairs of Etisalat, issued had confirmed the development, including that the negotiations with the banks were looking at a number of possible options.
Dikko’s statement said: “Discussions are ongoing regarding other issues such as the trading name during this transition phase. Operations and services to our subscribers remain normal and will in no way be affected as we continue to deliver quality services to our subscribers.
“We will continue to tap into the rich, creative and innovative resources within our workforce to build a stronger business upon the stable foundation we have laid in our nine years of operations.”
The parent company in Abu Dhabi, which has already converted its inter-company debts into equity, left it with little incentive to bailout its loss making Nigerian entity. The parent company, which generates 3.7 per cent of its revenues from the Nigerian business, has questioned the rationale of investing more in it and may sell its stake, sources say.
The Nigerian banks were said to have opposed a proposal by Etisalat to convert part of a $1.2bn loan from dollars to naira.
A banker with knowledge of the negotiations told Reuters that the seven-year syndicated loan on which Etisalat Nigeria missed a payment had a Dollar portion of $235m which the telecoms operator wanted to convert into naira to overcome hard currency shortages on Nigeria’s interbank market.
Stakeholders have also expressed concern for the plight of about 2,000 workers on the payroll of Etisalat across Nigeria.
Etisalat Nigeria has 20 million subscribers, according to Nigeria’s telecoms regulator, making it the country’s number four mobile operator; with a 14 per cent market share. South Africa’s MTN has 47 per cent, Globacom 20 per cent and Airtel – a subsidiary of India’s Bharti Airtel 19 per cent.
The UAE’s Etisalat owns 45 per cent of Etisalat Nigeria, while Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala owns 40 per cent of the company.
Etisalat Nigeria, however, expressed gratitude to the government, the NCC and the CBN for what it described as, “their patriotic zeal and tireless efforts at ensuring collaborative and productive engagement.”
The profiles of the new board members read:
Joseph Nnanna – Chairman
Nnanna is an economist and a former staff of the Central Bank of Nigeria. He has three decades of post qualification professional experience. He attended William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey and University of Houston, in Houston Texas, USA from 1975-80, where he read Finance, Public Policy and Economics.
He graduated with B.A, M.A and PhD diplomas. Since graduation, Nnanna has attended several economic policy oriented training programs. In 2003 and 2004, he studied at Harvard University and participated in the macroeconomic policy and leadership/ organizational management training programs.
Nnanna was appointed deputy governor (Financial System Stability) Central Bank of Nigeria on February 3, 2015. His work experience includes: a brief period of teaching at the University of Houston at Clear Lake City campus (USA) and at the federal government Polytechnic, Akure (Nigeria) in 1980-82. And from 1982-1989, he worked as a staff economist in the international trade and exchange rate section of the Research Department of the Central Bank of Nigeria
Nnanna also served as full time consultant to the government of Nigeria as a technical assistant to the National Economic Management Team and the Presidential Steering Committee on Global economic crisis. He was also a part-time consultant to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
In 2012-2014, Nnanna served as the Alternate Executive Director, representing Nigeria and 21 other sub-sahara African countries on the Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Washington D.C.
Oluseyi Bickersteth – Non Executive Director
Seyi Bickersteth is the National Senior Partner of KPMG Professional Services, Nigeria; he oversees KPMG West Africa Region and is a Member of the Global Board. Seyi has provided advisory services to major companies in varied industries, including oil and gas, financial services, telecommunications, manufacturing, commercial, public sector and not for profit organisations.
He has been extensively involved in privatisation activities and has provided tax and business advice to several local and international companies on privatisation, business organisation, entity restructuring and business regulatory issues.
Mr. Bickersteth was a member of the Trade and Investment Committee of the Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce, was a director of the Nigerian-South African Chamber of Commerce and currently a Director of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group. He was also involved in Vision 2010, which prepared a memorandum on the vision for Nigeria by year 2010. He chaired a working group on “Nigerian Tax Reforms 2003 & Beyond” for the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Ken Igbokwe – Non Executive Director
Igbokwe joined Price Waterhouse in London in 1978 and moved to PwC Nigeria in 1988. He became the Country Business Executive Leader of PwC Nigeria and West Africa and was a member of the PwC Africa Executive Committee.
Igbokwe holds a B.Sc. (Eng.) degree in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College, London University, and over 36 years’ experience in the provision of assurance, taxation, business advisory, and consulting services. He specialises in strategy, enterprise transformation, process reengineering, taxation advisory and business reconstruction.
He is a member, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England & Wales, and Nigeria; Member, City and Guilds Institute London; Member, Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, and Member, Business Recovery & Insolvency Practitioners Association of Nigeria.
Funke Ighodaro Executive Director, Finance
Ighodaro was Chief Financial Officer of Tiger Brands Limited from 2011 to 2016. She held the position of Chief Financial Officer of Primedia (Pty) Ltd, from 2001 to 2011. Prior to 2001, she was Managing Director of a private equity firm, Kagiso Ventures Limited and Executive Director of its parent company, Kagiso Trust Investment Company.
Funke also worked in the corporate finance division of Standard Corporate and Merchant Bank. She trained and qualified as a Chartered Accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers in London, where she spent a total of 10 years in audit and tax. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
Boye Olusanya – Managing Director/CEO
Boye Olusanya, the new CEO of Etisalat Nigeria is bringing on board an impeccable wealth of experience from the Nigerian telecoms sector. At ECONET Wireless, he was Deputy Chief Executive Officer and subsequently the Acting Chief Executive Officer where he successfully managed the affairs of the Company after the disengagement of the former operators.
At CELTEL NIGERIA LIMITED, Boye assumed the role of Deputy Chief Executive Officer and led the business strategy initiative for data services as well as key strategic operational changes in the business.
Boye has handled high level responsibilities at Dangote Industries Limited where he served as Chief Business Transformation Officer responsible for management of all enterprise-wide projects in the Group. He was also MD at Dancom Technologies Limited with responsibility for managing all the telecom assets and the IT Infrastructure. He oversaw the sale of the 3G subsidiary as well as managed the rollout of the fibre backbone network covering 4400km across the country.