MTN, others attracted $11b foreign investments in 2007

Bola Badmus, Abuja - 05.03.2008

National Communication Commission (NCC) on Tuesday said all the GSM service providers in the country, including MTN, Celtel and Glo have brought an inflow of $11.5billion foreign investments as at December 2007.

According to the commission, Celtel in addition was able to raise local fund running into $1.1billion through a consortium of banks in the country.

The NCC said this while appearing before the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts headed by Honourable Usman Adamu Mohammed. Executive Vice- Chairman of NCC, Mr. Ernest Ndukwe, told the house committee that the total foreign investments inflow committed to the Nigerian economy by the GSM service providers amounted to $11billion.

However, the executive vice chairman, who was represented by the director, Government and Legislative Affairs, Mr. Dave Imoko, could not say how much money the GSM service providers had been able to take out of the country as outflow arising out of the money they made from the Niigerian economy.

According to the director, only the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) would be able to provide such details, explaining that the NCC did not have the record.

Ndukwe added that his commission had adequate facilities to monitor the huge investments item by item in order to ensure that it was judiciously invested without allowing the GSM service providers to inflate cost of items being brought into the country.

Speaking on the poor quality service, the NCC boss said it was the challenge that the commission was facing, noting that no single factor was responsible but a combination of factors.

He said his commission had been emphasising quality service from the service providers for the past three months, but quickly added that the country needed between 20,000 and 30,000 base stations to operate very well in the GSM world.