Lack of forex lowers anticipated, lawmakers urged to intervene
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
A lack of foreign exchange (forex or FX) will hamper anticipated job creation in the telecommunication sector, the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) has alerted Abuja.
ALTON Chairman Gbenga Adebayo gave the caution at the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) industry interactive session with new NCC Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Aminu Maida in Lagos.
Adebayo was speaking on the intention of the federal government to create about two million digital jobs by 2025.
“We have a need for FX. Some of these requests are on your table. We must be in the first line for access to FX, otherwise, all the job creation we are talking about may not be possible if people cannot pay their FX obligation and buy their applications because of scarcity,” he said.
“So, access to FX has become more than important for us.”
Forex is critical to the telecom sector because it depends heavily on foreign inputs.
Maida urged telcos to consider increasing local content in the sector.
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Lawmakers asked to liaise with stakeholders to support telecom
Telecom operators recently asked the House of Representatives Communications Committee, to “Liaise with relevant stakeholders such as the CBN [Central Bank of Nigeria] for the institution of intervention measures to support the telecommunications sector.
“Such interventions could include the introduction of a special forex window for the industry, set-up of long-term, low-interest infrastructure funding schemes, etc.”
MTN Nigeria and Airtel in their recent financial statements lamented the impact of forex scarcity on their businesses, according to The PUNCH.
“Given the protracted forex paucity in the market, MTN Nigeria utilised trade lines to fund the establishment of confirmed irrevocable letters of credit for its network capex investments to sustain revenue growth,” MTN said.
Airtel added: “In some markets, we face instances of limited supply of foreign currency within the local monetary system.
“This not only constrains our ability to fully benefit at group level, from strong cash generation by those OpCos but also impacts our ability to make timely foreign currency payments to our international suppliers.”
Telcos also repeated their need for tariff review, insisting the current one is no longer favourable to the business.
“Our current pricing regime is not sustainable. It is a frank conversation we need to have. The way things are going, I am not sure if we can sustain the industry with the current pricing regime.
“It is, therefore, important for us to look at what is the best mechanism to get a price review underway that is very important,” Adebayo pleaded.
