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Celtel to invest $1 billion into operations 2008
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Ernest Ndukwe, Chairman,NCC
Celtel has concluded plans to invest about $1 billion into its operations in the country this year to provide its subscribers with better quality services.
Adebayo Ligali, Chief Executive Officer Celtel over the weekend disclosed this in Abuja and noted that this would bring the company’s investment in Nigeria to $3 billion in less than two years.
Bulk of this investment, Ligali said, would be ploughed into generator swapping and dualisation project under which old generators would be replaced with new ones in a project that will see about 8, 500 to 9,000 sets being purchased.
He attributed 75 per cent drop calls in the industry to power outages, which he said, ranks as the greatest challenge of telecom operators.
He informed of the growth of the company’s subscriber base from about 5.6 million in May 2006 to about 11 million at the end of last year and made possible by the current stability of the company and funding by its owners.
Another challenge is security of installations across the country which he said was also a key factor affecting the quality of service as some base stations come under constant attack of robbers.
In other areas, the Celtel CEO said communities deny operators access to their installations until certain fees were paid, adding “this is certainly a harsh environment”. But he was quick to admit that the challenges, notwithstanding, his company was working towards providing better services to its subscribers.
Ligali said his company was working on installing generators that would not be attractive to robbers adding that they would not work if stolen by thieves.
Equally, the CEO said operators were working towards providing Nigerians with a technology whereby stolen phones would be blocked and that already discussions were on between operators and the National Communications Commission (NCC) on the matter.
“Nigerian operators had already discussed with the International GSM Association (IGA) on the arrangement which he said would be provided free of charge but that some NCC officers had introduced a company to do it at a fee”.
Consequently, CEO said more discussions were on-going with NCC and that as soon as the approval was given, the IGA would assist the operators to eliminate handset theft in the country , as according to him, “if there is no market for stolen GSM handsets, those stealing them would stop.”
Bulk of this investment, Ligali said, would be ploughed into generator swapping and dualisation project under which old generators would be replaced with new ones in a project that will see about 8, 500 to 9,000 sets being purchased.
He attributed 75 per cent drop calls in the industry to power outages, which he said, ranks as the greatest challenge of telecom operators.
He informed of the growth of the company’s subscriber base from about 5.6 million in May 2006 to about 11 million at the end of last year and made possible by the current stability of the company and funding by its owners.
Another challenge is security of installations across the country which he said was also a key factor affecting the quality of service as some base stations come under constant attack of robbers.
In other areas, the Celtel CEO said communities deny operators access to their installations until certain fees were paid, adding “this is certainly a harsh environment”. But he was quick to admit that the challenges, notwithstanding, his company was working towards providing better services to its subscribers.
Ligali said his company was working on installing generators that would not be attractive to robbers adding that they would not work if stolen by thieves.
Equally, the CEO said operators were working towards providing Nigerians with a technology whereby stolen phones would be blocked and that already discussions were on between operators and the National Communications Commission (NCC) on the matter.
“Nigerian operators had already discussed with the International GSM Association (IGA) on the arrangement which he said would be provided free of charge but that some NCC officers had introduced a company to do it at a fee”.
Consequently, CEO said more discussions were on-going with NCC and that as soon as the approval was given, the IGA would assist the operators to eliminate handset theft in the country , as according to him, “if there is no market for stolen GSM handsets, those stealing them would stop.”
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