Nelson Ugwuagbo

Globacom subscribers will not be able to make calls to MTN lines soon due to the non-settlement of interconnect charges.

The Nigerian Communications Commission disclosed this on Monday in a public notice signed by Director, Public Affairs Department, Reuben Muoka.

It stated that it granted partial approval for the disconnection of Globacom from MTN Nigeria Communications Plc.

It said, “Globacom was notified of the application made by MTN and was given the opportunity to comment and state its case.

“The commission, having examined the application and circumstances surrounding the indebtedness, determined that Globacom does not have sufficient or justifiable reason for non-payment of the interconnect charges.”

The NCC revealed that at the expiration of 10 days from the date of this notice, “subscribers of Globacom will no longer be able to make calls to MTN but will be able to receive calls.

“The partial disconnection, however, will allow in-bound calls to the Globacom network.”

This is not the first time Glo subscribers will be disconnected from making calls to MTN over the same issue.

In 2019, MTN, acting upon a directive from the NCC, briefly disconnected Glo subscribers over a N4bn debt.

In December 2018, the telecom regulator approved mobile network operators to disconnect other operators over rising interconnect debts and the failure of the affected operators to pay.

The total disconnect fee in the industry at the time was about N165bn.

Interconnect charge is the price that telecom operators pay each other for calls terminating on their networks.

According to a source in MTN, Glo owes the firm about N6bn for interconnect fees.

Efforts to get Glo’s reaction are still in progress as the firm has yet to comment on the issue.

There were 61.39 mobile subscriptions on Glo’s network as of the end of August 2023.

According to the new NCC notice, these lines will not be able to make calls to MTN lines from January 18, 2024.

Foreign airlines were owed more than $700 million at the end of November.

The Central Bank of Nigeria has paid nearly $2 billion in outstanding foreign exchange forwards in the last three months in a bid to clear a backlog of dollars, but forex shortages continue to hobble the country’s naira currency.

Acting spokesperson for the apex bank, Hakama Sadi Ali, in a statement obtained by Reuters on Sunday said the CBN also recently paid $61.64 million to foreign airlines, who sold tickets in the local naira currency but have not been able to get their money out of the country.

Foreign airlines were owed more than $700 million at the end of November.

“In the past three months, the CBN has also redeemed outstanding forward liabilities amounting to almost USD 2 billion,” acting spokesperson Hakama Sadi Ali said in a statement late on Sunday.

“This underscores the Bank’s commitment to the resolution of pending obligations and a functional foreign exchange market.”

“These payments signify the CBN’s ongoing efforts to settle all remaining valid forward transactions, with the aim of alleviating the current pressure on the country’s exchange rate,” Ali said.

Africa’s biggest economy has nearly $7 billion in forex forwards that have matured, a major concern for investors, but the bank has promised to pay up to boost confidence in the foreign exchange market.

Nigeria’s foreign currency shortages have been worsened by declining oil production, which is the country’s largest export, accounting for more than 90% of dollar inflows.

President Bola Tinubu has promised to boost foreign currency inflows into Nigeria by attracting new investment, ramping up oil production and reforming the foreign exchange market.