The management of 9Mobile has responded to the claims by Teleology Holdings and its leading promoter, Adrian Wood (pioneer MTN Nigeria CEO), that 9Mobile was not cooperating to transform the #4 mobile operator. The disagreement is largely unfortunate for a company looking for a redesigned path in the market.

In a statement signed and made available to journalists on Wednesday, by 9mobile’s Director, Regulatory and Corporate Affairs, Oluseyi Osunsedo, the telecommunications firm explained that since taking over the company, and without any assistance from Mr Wood or Teleology Holdings, the Board has revived and enhanced relationships with key vendors and core business accounts; improved business relationships with suppliers; enhanced its core network capabilities to deliver network efficiency competitively with other operators.

The Full Statement below

In the aftermath of the protracted mismanagement of an otherwise healthy company, and eventual default on its loans by the previous owners, 9mobile was acquired by Teleology Nigeria Limited, following an internationally competitive and exhaustive bidding process led by Barclays Africa, with participation of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) and 13n Nigerian banks including GT Bank, Zenith Bank, Access Bank and others.

 ‘‘This process, which was well covered by the Nigerian media, was concluded with the initial deposit of $50 million and a further payment of $251 million as settlement to the banks who took over the company. These payments, as well as further due diligence and technical evaluations, led to the clearance of the sale by the NCC, and handover of 9mobile to the new owners, who announced a Board on 12 November 2018 with His Royal Highness Prince Nasiru Ado Bayero as the new Chairman.

 ‘‘Teleology Nigeria Limited is a consortium including several local and foreign investors. While every partner in the consortium was delivering and meeting their obligations to the partnership in terms of financial resources, physical availability for crucial meetings and extensive network to help build the business, Mr. Adrian Wood’s Teleology Holdings Limited, which only owned a minority stake in Teleology Nigeria Limited, failed severally and wholly to meet theirs. Mr. Wood was not personally present for all the critical presentations made by the consortium during the bid process and failed abjectly with his financing arrangements with Swiss-based UBS Bank. In all these failings, other partners in the consortium filled the gap and pushed ahead until the sale was completed.

‘‘Since taking over the company, and without any assistance from Mr. Wood or Teleology Holdings, the Board has revived and enhanced relationships with key vendors and core business accounts; improved business relationships with suppliers; enhanced its core network capabilities to deliver network efficiency competitively with other operators. With the assistance of leading global consultants, the company is also undertaking a complete review of its operational, regulatory, financial and technical architecture. On these basis, 9mobile has emerged from a period of uncertainty over the past two years to attain an active subscriber base of 16 million, representing a net increase of over 1 million subscribers in the last 6 weeks alone.

‘‘The company’s core strategy in the short to medium term shall be underpinned by cost efficiency, innovative product development, network efficiency and strategic technical partnerships. We believe that this approach towards organic growth is more sustainable in building a strong Nigerian telecom operator, which taps into the deep technical expertise of the Nigerian labour force than an approach motivated by short-term financial gain advocated by Mr. Wood and his associates.

“It is regrettable that Mr. Wood has allowed the same avarice, rascality, impatience and knavery that characterized his turbulent association with, and inglorious exits from several other companies to manifest again so early in 9mobile. While we wish him well in his future endeavors, we unequivocally assure our customers, suppliers, partners, regulators, and stakeholders that the Board is committed to continuing the upward mobility of 9mobile. Having invested so heavily in buying the company, and assembling a reliable team to pursue our goals, we want to categorically state that no distractions can stop us from this mission.

By Austyne Duru

World Bank projects Nigeria economy will expand by 2.8% in 2019 which is slightly below the Nigeria’s federal government’s assumption of 3% growth. We are hopeful that better days are ahead, although the realities on ground suggest the opposite.

Nigeria’s population grows at about 3% per annum. The implication of GDP growth of 2.8% is that our Per Capita Income stays at $2,020 hence more persons slide below poverty line. I assumed a GDP and population figures of $400 bn and 198 million respectively.

The bigger challenge is that GDP growth in Nigeria benefits an estimated top 2% who own the stakes in multinationals and politics. The remaining 98% are unable to find their feet, and in fact the additional population of 3% are born into poverty.

Policy executors know this truth but don’t act due to bad governance and deliberate effort to keep majority impoverished. Incentives meant for SMEs don’t reach the intended recipients because of sharp practices between government agencies, commercial banks, microfinance banks, and multinationals. The informal sector which accounts for 60% of job creation and economic transactions has been totally relegated in the scheme of things.

Nigeria has the potential to grow beyond 4.5% as projected for EMDEs (Emerging market and developing economies) which we are based on our SSA (sub-Saharan Africa) region and MINTS class. We need to harness the inherent potentials in our people – capacity, capability, and competency. The system must deliberately encourage startup businesses and nurture them to the next level. Politicians must stop the habit of cornering capital expenditures to their pockets while the projects are not executed. SMEs must ask more questions about the monies voted to the likes of BOI, DBN, and BOA.

2019 is even more interesting as Nigerians go to the polls to elect for the quadrennial ritual – a make or mar decision beckons.

For me, this is the best product so far in the CES (Consumer Electronics Show): IBM Q System One. It is a new quantum computer that is wholly integrated. This finicky computing machine which can crunch massive datasets is caged in a super-chilled enclosure, and covered in 0.5-inch-thick borosilicate glass. When it gets into production, it will do its work via cloud. Simply, IBM has gone cloud-first even for the quantum future.

The news: At this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, IBM took the wraps off the Q System One, which it claims is the world’s first integrated universal quantum computing system for commercial applications. Companies won’t be able to run out and buy the machines, though—they’re only accessible via IBM’s computing cloud.

All-in-one: Many quantum machines that use superconducting circuits, an approach favored by IBM, are a smorgasbord of wires connecting various electronic devices to a cryostatic cooling chamber that contains the quantum chip. The Q System One, on the other hand, is a single, tightly integrated system enclosed in an airtight case nine feet (2.7 meters) tall.

The world is full of abundance but accessing that abundance is unequal. From the lagoons of Lagos to the Java Sea near Indonesia, from California deserts to the Everest of Nepal, I see abundance everywhere. Yet, poverty is not yet in museums. They live with us! People, our generation has obligation to build a more hopeful, more equal, and more abundant future for ALL.

United Nations PAGE Conference, South Africa today.

It seems there are huge challenges across markets last quarter: Samsung is providing a depressing guidance. The semiconductor giant noted that its fourth-quarter revenue shrank 11% and operating profit declined 29% from the year before. It explained that slow demand on memory chips and “intensifying competition” for phones were to blame. LG was not spared: its profits plummeted 80% with revenue down 7%.

Samsung Electronics Co. expects its fourth-quarter operating profit will decline 29%—surprise guidance that fell far below analysts’ estimates—in the latest sign of challenges hitting the tech industry.

The world’s largest maker of smartphones and semiconductors said its estimated profit decline comes “amid mounting macro uncertainties.” The Suwon, South Korea-based company pointed to “lackluster demand” for memory chips and “intensifying competition” in its handsets business.

So, the challenges noted by Apple CEO Tim Cook in his letter may not be just Apple; this seems like a big-brand problem. Most affordable device brands have gotten so well that people have real alternatives as they work to save money. Samsung captures that excellently when it noted that “intensifying competition” in its handsets business is a key reason its revenues and profits are dropping.

Do not look far: the Tecno phones of this world are part of this redesign. They give you fair quality on price, and you can just live with them, sparing you from the overpriced brands and their fashionista troubles.

Apple pivots into a fashion company, in the likes of Louis Vuitton, with the launch of iPhone X today. It costs $999, heavy on fashion elements, but hardly moves the technology trajectory. But that does not matter, because it is Apple. The world will cover it for free, and Apple will enjoy a great earned media. From CNN to NBC to Nigeria’s AIT, the message will be the same: there is a new product from Apple.

This is all good as I expect the next generation of iPhone and Samsung Galaxy to be priced for the earth and not galaxies. As that happens, they would bring competition back to the affordable brands like Tecno and Infinix. And at the end, customers win, and phone-anchored mobile internet revolution continues in places like Africa.