Business
New Board Takes Over 9mobile … As LH Telecoms Takes Majority Stake
Following the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) approval as required by law, emerging Telecommunication Services Limited, operating under the trade name “9Mobile”, have announced the completion of an equity investment by LH Telecommunication Limited.
The investment, which was approved by African Export Import Bank (AFREXIM), the senior lender to 9Mobile in May 2023 has resulted in a change in control of 9Mobile in favour of the new investor by the issuance of new shares amounting to 95.5% of 9Mobile to the new investor in consideration for the injection of fresh capital into the company.
In pursuant to the injection of capital, the new investor has nominated some persons to the Board of Directors of 9Mobile: Thomas Etuh has been nominated as the Chairman of the Board.
He is an accomplished and versatile entrepreneur with over 36 years of experience in strategic sectors of the African economy, including agriculture, fertilizer production, mining, banking, telecommunications, power and aviation.
He is a passionate leader with a track record of successful corporate management, ensuring that clear objectives and expectations are delivered and sustained.
Mr. Etuh is the founder of the Tak Group of Companies. He previously served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Unity Bank Plc, Veritas Kapital Assurance Plc and Lighthouse Capital Limited.
He is currently the Chairman of the Board of Notore Chemicals Industries Plc. As Chairman of Jennifer Etuh Foundation (JEF), he has championed several healthcare and life-empowering projects in the underserved regions of Nigeria.
On his part, Nahim Abe Ibraheem has over 30 years of experience across finance, upstream and downstream oil trade, procurement, and manufacturing.
He began his career at Orbit Communications in 1990 and founded Soveran Nigeria Limited, a specialty procurement and petroleum product distribution company, in 1995.
As Chairman of Euronat Nigeria Limited, he has overseen major oil product exports from the NLNG and NNPC.
His notable roles include representing VShips Monaco S.A in Nigeria and advising Africa Merchant Bank (a Fortis Bank Subsidiary) and Société Générale Bank, France.
Mr. Ibraheem serves as Chairman of the Boards of Veritas Kapital Assurance PLC and Lighthouse Capital Limited, as well as a Non-Executive Director of the VFD Group and Veritas Glanvills Pensions Ltd.
He has sat on the boards of Morris Nigeria Limited and Superphosphate Fertilisers & Chemicals Limited. He is a member of the Institute of Directors (Nigeria) and PESA, and an avid sports fan.
Femi Edun is a financial services industry professional with over 35 years’ experience across assurance, consulting, credit ratings and research, investment banking and proprietary investment, from a variety of roles in Akintola Williams & Co (now Deloitte), Price Waterhouse, (now PricewaterhouseCoopers), Agusto & Co. Limited, Nigeria’s first credit rating agency and Frontier Capital Limited.
He has been involving in notable pioneering initiatives in the financial services industry and several landmark transactions.
Whilst serving as a volunteer adviser to the Federal Government, he was a non-executive director of the Bank of Industry.
He is the Chairman of the board of Craneburg Construction Limited, independent non-executive Director of Chevron Closed Pension Fund Administrators Limited and non-executive director of Notore Chemical Industries Plc and Agusto & Co. Limited amongst others.
Following the completion of the transaction, LH Telecommunication Limited has nominated the following new members to the board of directors of 9Mobile:
Senator Daisy Ehanire Danjuma was elected as a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2003 where she served on numerous committees, most notably as Chairman of the ECOWAS Parliament’s Women and Children’s Rights Committee and Chairman Senate Committee on Women Affairs and Youth Development.
Following her legislative tenure, she held the position of Executive Vice Chairman of SAPETRO until December 2023 when she was appointed as the Executive Chairman.
Senator Danjuma is the Chairman, Board of Trustees of the H I D Awolowo Foundation, a Member Board of Trustees of Women at Risk International Foundation (WARIF), the Chairman Board of Trustees of Lagos Public Interest Law Partnership (LPILP) and the Chairman of May & Baker Nigeria Plc.
She worked as a State Counsel in the Lagos State Ministry of Justice (Department of Public Prosecutions) and was a pioneer Legal Counsel to the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria before working for the investment bank, Nigerian Acceptances Limited (NAL Merchant Bank).
She was Company Secretary/Legal Adviser to the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) before moving into private practice.
Senator Danjuma is a member of the International Bar Association (IBA), the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), and the International Federation of Female Lawyers (FIDA).
She has also been awarded honorary doctorate degrees by the University of Ibadan, University of Benin and Redeemer’s University.
Michael Ikpoki is an accomplished Multinational Business Executive/Leader with over 25 year’s experience across regulatory, commercial, operational management/leadership and consulting/advisory roles in the African Telecom Industry.
He was a former Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana and MTN Nigeria. He is Founder/Managing Partner of Africa Context Advisory Partners where he leads expert teams to consult on Telecom/ICT in Africa.
He is Chairman of the Boards of Capricorn Digital Limited and Amplitude Telecoms Africa Limited. He is a member of the Boards of Telecel Group and Unilever Nigeria Plc.
Ibrahim Ajimasu Puri is a finance professional who possesses over 30 years of cognate banking experience encompassing operations, marketing, retail, corporate banking, and human resource management.
He was an Executive Director with the United Bank for Africa (UBA), with responsibility for the bank’s operations in Northern Nigeria.
He currently serves on the boards of several blue-chip companies in Nigeria including the Nigeria Breweries Plc and is Chairman of the Board of Redtech Limited, a member of the Heirs Holdings Group
Emmanuel Etuh is a professional and business executive whose experience covers law, finance and operations across diverse industries.
He currently serves as Executive Director, Corporate Services at Lighthouse Capital, overseeing the operational aspects of the business, including investments, client service, risk and technology.
He also serves on the board of Veritas Kapital Assurance Plc and Tak Agro & Chemicals Limited. He commenced his career at Banwo & Ighodalo and later served a stint at the International Bar Association, London.
He also served as a lead transactor at TMD Advisory Services focused on the origination, structuring and execution of financial advisory mandates in West and East Africa.
Etuh is the founding partner at Haute and Peers LP, providing strategic, corporate and commercial advice to technology, media and telecoms players in the Nigerian market.
The new Board has also ratified the appointment of the new management team led by Obafemi Banigbe as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Company to lead the Company through this transition stage and take it on the path of recovery.
Obafemi is an accomplished technology executive with proven track record of steering technological innovations and strategic initiatives throughout various pivotal markets across Africa.
He has over 24 years in the telecommunications industry and has worked in different capacities within the industry, including as Network Operations director in Airtel Nigeria, Chief Technology Officer in Millicom International Cellular Tanzania, Chief Operating Officer and interim Chief Executive Officer of Millicom Ghana.
He brings his deep technical knowledge and understanding of the telecommunications industry in Africa and proven leadership to the team.
Similarly, the Board has approved the appointment of John Vasikiran as the company’s Chief Operating Officer and Abolaji Idowu as Chief Financial Officer.
John Vasikiran is a technology business executive with over 25 years of experience as a dynamic & results-oriented CXO, providing Strategic and Operations leadership in uniquely challenging situations.
John had successful stints as a Group Chief Commercial Officer of Glo Nigeria, Glo Ghana, and Glo Benin. He was also CEO of Cellcom (Orange) in Liberia, CEO Cellcom- Guinea (Conakry) and was Director of Business Development & Sales (Africa Region) for Ribbon Communications formerly Nortel Networks.
Prior to this, John held various Sr. level Positions in MA Group, including as Managing Director of Conoil Plc and Director Commercial of Glo Nigeria.
On his part, Idowu has joined the company with over 20 years of experience having led finance transformation and delivering ambitious growth for global giants, such as Vodafone, Telefonica O2, MTN Nigeria, Starcomms PLC, Shell, Barclays, PepsiCo International, British Gas, Johnson & Johnson, Norgine Pharmaceutical and Vivo Energy.
He has held senior positions in various organizations across Europe and Africa raising finance, transforming organizations, championing growth, delivering significant cost saving and efficiency, optimizing asset utilization, reorganizing and streamlining companies, and preparing entities for new markets.
The reconstitution of the Board of Directors and the Executive leadership of the company has brought the 9mobile transformation programme to a momentous phase in readiness to compete strongly in the market.
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Nigeria directs all oil, gas revenues to federation account in sweeping reform
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has signed an order directing that all oil and gas revenues owed to the government be paid directly into the federation account, in sweeping reforms aimed at boosting public finances, the presidency said on Wednesday.
Under the law, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation keeps 30% of oil and gas profits for frontier exploration in inland basins. The presidency said those funds will now be paid into the federation account and appropriated by the government.
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NNPC also retains 30% of oil and gas sales as operational costs and receives 30% of proceeds from Production Sharing Contracts. Under the new directive, all revenues under these arrangements will flow directly to the federation account, while the company will instead receive appropriated management fees.
Royalty payments, petroleum profit taxes and other statutory revenues previously collected and retained by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) will also be paid directly into the Federation Account. The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) will likewise remit its revenues in full, with its cost of collection to be funded through appropriation.
Tinubu’s office said deductions enabled by the law had sharply reduced net oil inflows and contributed to fiscal strain across federal, state and local governments. The president also ordered a review of the law and established an implementation committee to enforce the changes.
The Bank of Industry (BoI) has introduced a business clinic model designed to diagnose, treat and rehabilitate the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to ensure long-term growth and sustainability.
The Divisional Head, Business Development, BoI, Dr Obaro Osah, made this known at the bank’s Thrive Summit with the theme: “Driving Growth through Innovation and Financial Empowerment” on Tuesday in Lagos.
Osah noted that traditional banking often treated businesses as mere account opening and management relationships.
He said the BoI business clinic model was created to reimagine the essence of a bank as a specialised teaching hospital.
According to him, just as a hospital requires a thorough diagnosis before service treatment/surgery, the bank must analyse the structural health of a small business before injecting capital.
“Financial distress is often just a symptom, the disease lies in operations and adopted philosophy, strategy, or governance,” he said.
Osah noted the many MSMEs, in spite of their potential, suffer from recurring ailments: restricted cash flow, poor operational structure, lack of proper packaging and market access, poor management among others.
He said the bank’s triage and vital signs included screening SMEs by maturity stage, pulse check to assess cash flow and liquidity and market temperature to evaluate competitive landscape.
Osah said after these evaluation, advanced diagnostics, prescriptions, surgical interventions and recovery and rehabilitation would be carried out where necessary.
“Prescription without diagnosis is malpractice and the Thrive Summit ensures we treat the root cause, not just the symptoms,” he said.
The Chief Strategy and Development Officer, BoI, Dr Isa Omagu, noted that MSMEs needed more than finance to succeed.
Omagu said they needed structure, advisory, capacity building, governance, digital readiness, access to market information and the right business infrastructure to operate and scale effectively.
He said as part of the bank’s 2025-2027 Corporate Strategy, the business clinic would expand BoI’s value proposition to broaden its products and services to better reach target segments.
Omagu said by offering structured business advisory and project development support, the clinic would enable the bank deliver deeper, more holistic value to MSMEs beyond financing.
“This vision of a structured, holistic business clinic; one that strengthens MSMEs across all core business functions and makes them more bankable, competitive, digitally enabled, and sustainable, is fully aligned with our strategic initiative to develop and roll out non-financial product offerings.
“Through this initiative, BoI commits to providing business advisory for MSMEs and project lifecycle support for enterprises, and the business clinic serves as the practical platform through which this commitment comes to life,” he said.
Omagu urged MSMEs to apply the guidance received to strengthen structure, governance, and financial management.
He added that they must adopt digital tools and improve internal processes to boost competitiveness while engaging BoI as a long-term partner in building a resilient, scalable business.
Mrs Eniola Akinsete, Divisional Head, Sustainability, BoI, said adopting Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), principles often led to business prosperity.
Akinsete, however, noted that in spite of the benefits, adoption challenges persisted.
She affirmed BoI’s support on the adoption of ESG Practices by the MSMEs.
Earlier, the Executive Director, Corporate Finance, Sustainability and Investments, BoI, Mr Rotimi Akinde, said the summit represented a shared commitment to building a stronger, more resilient business ecosystem in Nigeria.
Akinde stated that the business clinic created a platform for practical knowledge sharing where entrepreneurs and small business owners could gain actionable insights to overcome challenges and seize opportunities.
He said discussions would focus on critical areas that drive sustainable growth, including branding and marketing, financials and activities, human rights, human resources, raising capital for equity and technology.
Nigeria’s Dangote Group has signed a $400 million equipment deal with China’s Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group to speed up the expansion of its oil refinery toward a planned 1.4 million barrels per day, the company said on Tuesday.
The additional equipment is expected to support major projects under construction across refining, petrochemicals, agriculture and infrastructure.
Dangote said the XCMG agreement would allow it to acquire a wide range of new heavy-duty machinery to complement existing assets deployed for the refinery build?out, which the company expects to complete within three years.
As part of the expansion, polypropylene capacity will rise to 2.4 million tons per year from 900,000 tons. Urea production in Nigeria will triple to 9 million tons per year, alongside an existing 3 million-ton plant in Ethiopia, positioning the conglomerate as the world’s largest urea producer, the company said.
The output of linear alkyl benzene – a key raw material for detergents – will increase to 400,000 tons annually, making Dangote the biggest supplier in Africa. Additional base-oil capacity is also planned in the programme.
Dangote Group described the equipment deal as a strategic investment aligned with its ambition to become a $100 billion enterprise by 2030.
“The additional equipment we are acquiring under this partnership will significantly enhance execution across our projects,” it said in a statement.
Owned by Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote, the $20 billion refinery began operations in 2024 after years of delays. Once fully operational, it is expected to reduce Nigeria’s heavy dependence on imported refined fuel and reshape fuel supply across West and Central Africa.
Reporting by Isaac Anyaogu; Editing by Anil D’Silva
The Nigeria-Slovenia Chamber of Commerce on Thursday urged the Nigerian business community to explore business opportunities in Slovenia to widen their horizons.
The Tide source reports that the chamber made the call at its 2025 Last Quarter Business Forum held in Lagos State.
The forum is the chamber’s routine session aimed at informing businesses about the latest opportunities of mutual benefit between both countries, encouraging people to explore them to improve their livelihoods.
Speaking at the event, which was attended by businessmen and trade regulatory agencies, the Director-General of the Nigeria-Slovenia Chamber of Commerce, Mr Uche Udungwor, described the relationship between the two countries as a bilateral economy.
Udungwor said the body, established to build, promote and facilitate trade and investment activities between Nigeria and Slovenia, had positively impacted both nations.
He said the mandates of the chamber include: “To provide a forum representative of Nigeria and Slovenia’s interests for the development and improvement of commerce and industry between the two countries.
“Also, to create, promote and sustain broad exchanges and interactions in commercial, industrial and economic fields between the countries.
“To promote cooperation on technical and scientific innovations between institutions of the countries through the exchange of regular information on trade and investment opportunities.
“To advise members on opportunities, challenges, legislation or otherwise arising from the pursuit of trade between Nigeria and Slovenia, and to encourage the exchange of ideas and views on trade matters within the context of trade promotion between both countries.”
According to him, Slovenia’s major imports include organic chemicals, agro products such as cocoa beans, iron and steel/metal scraps, wood, and mineral fuels/petroleum products.
He said the trade balance between Slovenia and Nigeria is “not quite encouraging”, citing United Nations COMTRADE data indicating that Slovenia’s imports from Nigeria in 2022 amounted to $5.7 million.
Udungwor described the Republic of Slovenia, located in Central Europe with about 2.1 million inhabitants, as a promising business frontier for Nigerians.
He noted that the country features Alpine mountains, thick forests and a short Adriatic coastline.
“Slovenia, which borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Croatia to the south and southeast, and Hungary to the northeast, has a 2024 GDP of 72.49 billion dollars, a sound economy and a low-risk business environment.
“Slovenia has been a member of the European Union since 2004 and of the Schengen Group since 2007. It is also a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
“Slovenia today is a stable, vibrant democracy that offers a stimulating business environment and represents a bridge between the Balkan, Central European and Western European countries.
“The Nigeria-Slovenia Chamber of Commerce is at your service to provide up-to-date information and advice about Slovenia’s economy, business opportunities, companies, products and services for the mutual benefit of all,” he said.
A participant, Mr Muyiwa Ajose, said his partnership with the chamber had bolstered his agro exports to Slovenia.
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