Business News
9mobile denies court order as in-house rancour continues
Nigeria’s telecommunication company, 9mobile, has responded to a Nairametric report that the Federal High Court has barred the transfer of ownership of the network operator to Teleology Nigeria Limited.
Nigeria’s telecommunication company, 9mobile, has responded to a Nairametric report that the Federal High Court has barred the transfer of ownership of the network operator to Teleology Nigeria Limited.
9mobile, in a statement released by the Company Secretary/Legal Adviser, Ore Olajide, said the court has not nullified the sale of the company to Teleology Nigeria Limited. 9mobile also said when the initial ruling to maintain status quo was made in April 2018, Emerging Markets Telecommunication Services Ltd (trading as 9Mobile now) wasn’t a party to the suit.
Investors’ plight
About the initial ruling: The suit was filed on April 6, 2018, by Afdin Ventures Limited and Dirbia Nigeria Limited; the two major investors in 9Mobile. Both Afdin and Dirbia said despite being major investors, they were left out of decision making, prompting them to seek a refund of their investment estimated at $43,330,950.
The investors, in a newly filed court documents, alleged that the defendants have not only sold the company despite the existing restraining order, but they have also effected a transfer of ownership to a new set of buyers.
More so, the investors exhibited newspaper publications indicating that the defendants have proceeded with the sale in breach of the pending court order.
The recent Abuja High Court ruling that invalidated all the activities leading to the transfer of ownership is dated Monday, April 1st, 2019. The suit is marked “FHC/ABJ/CS/288/2018”.
In response, 9mobile says the Federal High Court had on April 1, 2019, made an order for parties to maintain status quo as at April 25, 2018, and not nullifying the sale of 9mobile to Teleology Nigeria Limited.
9mobile, however, says it has appealed the 2018 ruling and sought an injunction pending their appeal.
“The sale of 9mobile to Teleology Nigeria Limited has not been nullified. The court made an order to maintain status quo as at April 25, 2018, when EMTS was not a party to the suit and we have appealed the ruling as well as sought an injunction pending appeal at the Court of Appeal”.
The company also urged their subscribers and all stakeholders to remain calm while they resolve the court issue.
About 9mobile
Emerging Markets Telecommunication Services Limited (EMTS) – also known as 9mobile – is a Nigerian private limited liability company.
EMTS acquired a Unified Access Service License from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in 2007. The License enables EMTS to provide Fixed Telephony (wired or wireless), Digital Mobile Services, International Gateway Services and National/Regional Long Distance Services in addition to spectrum assignments in the 900 and 1800 MHz bands.
With a recent name change and rebranding in July 2017, the company launched its new identity – 9mobile, with an unveiling of the new name and logo.
The new brand identity, according to the telco, reflects the bold and creative attributes which we share with our valued subscribers especially the vibrant youth segment.
Profiles
Atsu Davoh is building ways for Africans to easily acquire and spend cryptocurrency
Atsu Davoh has gone from failed projects to running one of Ghana’s most innovative startups.
In recent times, the tech space in Africa has experienced immense growth, with the introduction of several key players and disruptors across various sectors. One sector that is also rising is the cryptocurrency space with Africa experiencing greater crypto ownership and trade volume.
The number of Bitcoins processed on a single day reached its highest value at the beginning of 2021, as more people displayed interest in the cryptocurrency. Due to its fast adoption, more fintech players have created platforms that have made trading with cryptocurrency easier. One of such players is Atsu Davoh who calls himself the “product guy.”
Atsu Davoh dropped out of college (Carleton College) in the United States and moved back to Ghana to help innovate on Africa’s financial infrastructure. Atsu first discovered Bitcoin in 2017 during the first boom when it became mainstream. Before then, he and his co-founder Samuel Baohen had been involved in many failed projects.
He developed a USSD system where people could buy bitcoin through their phone numbers, like tying crypto to phone numbers in a native way. This was one of the first iterations of Bitsika.
Atsu was invited to Join Binance Labs Incubator by Yele Bademosi where he got $150,000 after graduating from the incubator. Bitsika went on to raise around $900,000 from investors. This brought the total seed raised to $1,050,000.
This USSD system worked in Ghana but didn’t work in Nigeria. Atsu and his team then pivoted the platform to a donation crowdfunding platform, which allowed people living in other countries to send donations to African nationals in need of the funds before finally building it into a cross-border crypto remittance platform.
Bitsika users can deposit and remit money across multiple currencies using the app, with all monies deposited in Bitsika stored in USD credits or stable-coin.
Bitsika has over 50,000+ downloads on Playstore and processed nearly $40 million in 2020 with $18,872,474 in deposits, $17,890,807 in payouts (withdrawals), and $3,189,834 in internal peer-to-peer transfers.
Despite a few unfavourable regulations surrounding cryptocurrency in Africa, the market has shown no signs of slowing down as more people are building products that will make trading seamless.
Business
FG signs new Sustainable Development Goals agreement with UN
The Agreement is for new development cooperation with initiatives towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals set in the UN Agenda 2030.
