₦airaland Forum

Many of us who were in Nigeria during the advent of GSM in 2001, would remember that we had only two GSM service providers from 2001-2003.

These service providers were Econet wireless AKA buddie and MTN from SA.

Econet wireless was the first to come on board and was fully Nigerian, whilst MTN is fully SA.

Globacom didn't come on board until 2003.
Econet wireless was shorlived as it transformed into
1) Econet
2)V mobile
3)Celtel
4)Zain
5) now Airtel

The company has refused to grow and now ranked the worst network in Nigeria.

Here's the full story and the ibori Connection
www.techpoint.ng/2015/10/06/econet-founder-reveals-story-behind-companys-downfall-in-nigeria/

ECONET FOUNDER REVEALS STORY BEHIND COMPANY’S DOWNFALL IN NIGERIA

Econet Wireless holds the record of being the first GSM operator to go live in Nigeria. This was way back in 2001 when they were only two operators, the other being MTN. Over the years, the company has undergone so many changes of name and management that we can hardly keep up.

Strive Masiyiwa, CEO and Founder of Econet Wireless, recently took to his blog to reveal his side of the story behind the company’s downfall in Nigeria. An extract from the blog post:

It’s time to play by a different (ethical) set of rules (Part 7) Nigeria 1 of 5

___Sometimes the price can be very high in the fight against corruption.

I had the privilege of making Nigeria’s first GSM phone call back in 2001 when I called the regulator to say, “We’re live!” Who would’ve believed then that Nigeria today would have more than 167 million mobile phones?!

It all started out as a very exciting new chapter for enterprise in Africa. Shortly after President Obasanjo was elected, the new government announced an incredibly transparent international auction process for three national mobile phone licenses.

To participate in the bid, you not only had to raise money, but there had to be a member of the bidding consortium who was an experienced GSM operator. Econet Wireless met the requirements because of its experience in Zimbabwe and Botswana. Our Nigerian partners, which included state governments, local banks and high net worth individuals, were financial investors. The largest shareholder had only 10%. That was the written agreement.

I managed to assemble a consortium of 22 investors to put up the money needed to bid. Our shareholders were all Nigerian, mostly institutional investors including leading banks and two state governments, Lagos State and Delta State. The license cost us $285m and was the most expensive license ever issued in Africa at the time. This was 2001.

We considered the investment not only about putting together a network, but also about building a nation. We knew it had the potential to transform Nigeria’s entire business and social architecture.

Most of our investors had between 1-10% shareholding. Econet Wireless Nigeria had only 5% of the shares, but that was fine because it was 5% ownership of a very big pie.

As the “technical partner and operator,” Econet was the company with the expertise to build and operate such a business. Our financial investors recognised this, and also allowed us to receive 3% of the turnover as our fees. This was standard practice in the industry.

We were one of the winning bidders and they gave us just six months to set up business and get our network operating. We were under a lot of pressure but our network was live two days before the others! Customers were pouring in. We were number one in the market with an estimated 57% market share.

___Then came the fateful day when I was told that our company must pay a total of $9m in bribes to senior politicians (in state government) who had facilitated the raising of the money to pay for the license.

I refused to authorise the illegal payments. Meeting after meeting was held to try to get me to agree, but I would not. The money would not be paid as long as Econet was the operator and I had signing authority.

James Ibori, the Governor of Delta State, was demanding $4,5m be paid to him in his personal capacity. He was one of the most powerful men in the country and had a reputation for violence. When he heard that I was refusing to approve payment he issued an ultimatum:

___”Pay or I will chase you and your people out of the country.”

I refused.

The shareholders met and voted Econet Wireless Nigeria out of management. They cancelled our management contract. James Ibori and his colleagues personally attended the meeting to remove us. After the meeting one of them (a prominent local businessman even today) came up to me and said: “Unfortunately for you, God does not have a vote.”

I had to withdraw all my staff and their families: 200 people in all. We left Nigeria.

Most of our people had to be retrenched. The loss of the contract almost drove us to bankruptcy as a group.

They invited a big international operator to replace us as technical partner and operator. They changed the name of the company from Econet to V-Mobile.

Within days of their arrival, the managers of the new operator signed off the payments demanded as bribes.

Then what happened?

A few noble Nigerians had both the integrity and courage to carefully collect all the documentation on the movement of the money, and pass it all on to me.

___There’s a saying worth remembering in uncovering the trail of destruction that is corruption: “Follow the money”…

I bided my time… then I wrote a letter to the United States Department of Justice!

It was 2003.

To be continued…

HopeAtHand:
Atleast we know Omotola, Desmond Elliot et al.

Its better you're known Nationally than Regionally...That is simply what leaves Tinubu a local champion

Fool

That same local champion fought and defeated PDP under OBJ

Jonathan of PDP ran to him for help in 2011

And in 2014/2015 he chose buhari and Osinbajo to defeat a sitting president.

I feel sorry for you Igbo people

Hi all

Kindly share your experience about how easy/ hard it was for you in obtaining Japanese visa from Abuja Nigeria and your experience at POE and stay within the country

Wow

Spycam showing impressive signs on the west

I've watched 3 different news channels and their stability is quite impressive.

Emmachile what sayeth thou?

rugggedest:
You wey wan buy Queen for D*** ... Shey You no hear say server dey down ni...abi e don dey work back ni?

has other uses apart from hacking

Vicjustice:
If your company is a well established company you would not be needing a bank statement of your own when you are being sponsored by such company. But from your narration and the figure that you give it is clear that your company is somehow struggling one.
It is difficult to give you advice merely based on the information that you provided: one would ask if what is the N5m for and how can you prove that you have access to the money.
Well to be honest, i doubt that a visa will be issued to an employee of a company that can only boast of N5m.

@ the emphasised text.

Visa has been issued. Submitted on the 28th of September and visa issued 2nd of October, 2015.

Criteria

The kind of organisation sponsoring. They found my organisation sound enough and capable

The professional associations I belong to. Well, I belong to RICS UK. ( Royal institution of Chattered Surveyors)

Financial status. They found the account of the organisation capable of sponsoring the trip

I didn't even submit any tax certificate at all

EMMAACHILE:
Kodi generally is not stable now. The only one that I saw working as at this morning was the pak hind live add on found under the xunity repo. Google how to install pak hind live addon.
You can also use standalone apps like mobdro, wss and uktvnow.

he's enquiring about laptop or PC

.

laluski:
Oga please help me with setup my Iptv on laptop. It will even be better if I can call you.
Very urgent please

Just seeing this.

Kodi is the magic.

Emmachile where art thou?

We all need dongles

EMMAACHILE:
FTA get plenty stress

lol. We need dongles

1kinggy:
Please Which channels are ok on 16/17 E for news, sports and entertainment.

Thanks.

variety FTA but cant really be compared with Pay tvs

FTA can be boring since the departure of Irib and Tv3

1kinggy:
Please Which satellite is on your lowest LNB and settings, I'd like to try it too believing the two above are astra 3 and eutelast .

16/17 east.

I also have same set up at home

EMMAACHILE:
Qsat supports biss key

I know it does but no biss keys for MBC is what I'm saying

moneybag100:
Hmmm....After you don sell Gala make small money then you will term lagos as no man's land.

we would report him to Olowo RKO, Oba Rilwan Akiolu

lele4u:
Am using Qsat 26g it doesn't support powervu. pls can I get biss keys for mbc or any other channels

non for now

Watch German classical on star times world football today
Bayern vs BVB

4:30pm

lele4u:
Hi Gurus pls does Amos 17east does support biss key. Am asking because I ave Google search but got nothing for mbc packages, fox sport. pls just tell me is possible. I will upload my picture tomorrow. I just to finished installing on 60cm dish.

There are some channels that would work on powervu decoder between 16&17 east. But not the popular ones

The end of dongle is very near

Prince1007:
Its in Paris,France.
Its a Climate Change based conference happening between November 25th and 29th and i have already paid for my registration package which covers my inland travels and accomodation. Documents attesting to this are already sent. As i said earlier,i am a recent graduate of Biochemistry since June,22 years old with a Virgin International Passport awaiting Mobilization for youth service.
How can i package my documents to avoid rejection?

Very risky.

They may think as a young graduate with no Good job to tie you with Nigeria, that you'll abscond

abdool09:
Seriously I dnt know how to pay for the 2day subs. if u can check, there is a place where u can change the bouquet u want to pay for. bt I advise u to contact there customer care.

Thanks man.

I've done it.

Didn't need to change banquet.

I'm on unique banq

Unique is N4800 monthly
4800/30= N160 per day.

Paid N320 via quick teller and now, my account shows 2 days remaining.

I have successful used quick teller to pay N320 into my account,

EMMAACHILE:
You still dey on this issue?
Its self explanatory. You can also use quickteller to recharge your startimes if tenbre is hard for you.

you didn't give a good explanation

abdool09:
you have to bind your smartcard n ur decoder first under account management. after that then you proceed to recharge, stil under account management.

did all that already.

The issue is recharging.

I was prompted to enter a 16 digit recharge voucher, which is where I got stuck.

Was kind of recharge card I'm I to enter?

Secondly, I want to to recharge for only two days, how will I go about that?

Hello

How can I use tenbre to recharge my decoder?

Any kind nairalander to calmly talk me through his to recharge my star times using tenbre?

Will greatly appreciate it

peterchidi360:
Good day house i need avatacam acct, mine will expire in 3 days time. original acct plz

Get the latest software, upgrade and buy spycam

logonlaredo:
@ davodyguy I sent u a mail.

OK

Can't check now

Can post if its not too private?

Dreay01:
Thanks, I know how dongle works but I just checked mine now and it is back as @ 10:55pm.cheers!

we thank God

Dreay01:
@ Davodguy, thanks for the explanation and I haven't chopped off my dealer in anyway, I only requested he should explain why it still displays "Please contact your dealer"while some using qsat q28g claimed it is working and he gave me a call and started raining insult, we are all mature men and I never expected that from him, he needs to grow up honestly. I don't think I have asked too much by asking for explanation because at least he his my dealer here in Nigeria, He should be able to contact his dealer too in china or at least explain has you just did.

OK.

Just know that dongle na dongle. Illegal na illegal. If it comes, accept, if not move on.

I've missed my favourite programme on a certain channel that has been blocked for over a month now. Its so so painful, but that's reality.

Just keep calm. It may or may not come back

Dreay01:
@ Malix, Kindly explain why the qsat q28g decoder I bought from you still displays " Please contact your dealer" while others are reporting it to be working @ their end?

I didn't buy mine from Malix but from another top popular Alaba Intl MKT dealer. Austin Arinze. My spycam worked for few days and till now, its showing contact your dealer.

I didn't chop off the dealer, since I'm not the only one with that issue.

By contact your dealer, it means the dealer in China and not Nigeria.

Qsat is having issues with some spy cam account.

Its a general issue

EMMAACHILE:
Do you have mxplayer installed?
Sort by categories at the top.

yes

I do