When Etisalat – now 9mobile – entered the Nigerian telecom market in 2008, the country’s 64 million total subscriber base was dominated by three operators: MTN Nigeria, Zain Nigeria (now Airtel), and Globacom. Despite the fierce competition, the UAE-based company identified a gap in the market—unserved young subscribers. To capture this audience, Etisalat partnered with Banky W, a rising Nigerian music star whose popularity had skyrocketed after his hit song Ebute Metta gained traction the previous year.
The collaboration birthed the iconic “0809ja for Life” campaign, which resonated deeply with the youth and significantly boosted Etisalat’s market presence during its peak years. This innovative approach ushered in a new era of targeted marketing and consumer engagement in Nigeria’s telecom industry.
In no time, Etisalat became the fourth-largest operator in the market. The brand also gained visibility through strategic marketing, sponsoring two seasons of the popular Nigerian Idol reality show and launching the “Etisalat Prize for Innovation and Literature.”
These initiatives connected, and by August 2016, the network had 22.5 million subscribers and a 14% market share.
Nearly all telecom operators have adopted aggressive marketing and rapid infrastructure deployment as their entry strategy. While these strategies help unlock market visibility and subscriber recruitment, funding and marketing must align with corporate governance and regulatory compliance to make the business sustainable. In the case of Etisalat, the struggling corporate structure unravelled the company.
The collapse of a once-innovative telco
In 2016, Etisalat’s fortunes collapsed when it defaulted on a $1.2 billion loan to refinance a $650 million facility and modernise its network. The default was largely due to the devaluation of the naira, which significantly increased the cost of servicing its foreign-denominated debt.
Unlike its competitors, Etisalat’s revenue streams were constrained by its limited spectrum holdings, including the 1800 MHz and 900 MHz bands for 2G and 4G LTE, and the 2100 MHz band for 3G services. Additionally, its fibre infrastructure was inadequate, with only 4,620 kilometres of fibre compared to MTN’s expansive 39,972 kilometres, leaving Etisalat unable to compete effectively across Nigeria.
The company also lost a key revenue source after selling 2,136 base towers to IHS Towers in 2014 to streamline operations and cut costs, reducing its ability to generate income from infrastructure leasing.
9mobile declined to comment on any part of this story.
One person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named told TechCabal that a plan to raise additional funding in 2018 failed after a boardroom dispute. The Hakeem Bello-Osagie-led EMTS disagreed on the structure of the new board.
The regulatory environment did not also help, as the operators were on edge over the threat of heavy fines. In October 2015, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) fined MTN Nigeria ₦1.04 trillion ($5.2 billion) for failing to deactivate 5.1 million unregistered SIM cards on its network. It may have explained why Etisalat Group did not wait for the regulator to intervene in the loan negotiation or resolve the boardroom squabbles.
The hasty transition to 9mobile
Etisalat Group in UAE was so scarred by its entire experience with banks, board of directors and regulators in Nigeria that it gave an ultimatum to the Nigerian entity to cease using its name in one month. The first name put forward was 9jamobile, which was rejected, and they settled for 9mobile, according to three people familiar with direct knowledge of the matter.
In July 2017, Etisalat Group, along with the United Arab Emirates Sovereign Wealth Fund owned by the Mubadala Development Company, abandoned its 85% stake and exited its Nigerian operations, giving room for Emerging Markets Telecommunications Services, which previously owned 15% of the company to take over.
Rebranding to 9mobile in July 2017 was supposed to be a fresh start for the telco, but the new company faced two major challenges from the beginning. One was retaining Etisalat’s business arrangement with Huawei.
The UAE-based company had a managed service agreement with the Chinese technology company. In telecommunications, managed service is when a third-party provider runs the operation, management, and maintenance of specific telecom services or infrastructure. It allows the customer, often a telecom operator, to focus on its core business operations.
Etisalat regularly met its financial obligations with Huawei until it left the country, according to one person with knowledge of the matter. Huawei continued to provide managed services to 9mobile from 2018 to 2021 when it ended the contract due to mounting debt, the same person said.
9mobile also had an internal management crisis. The company’s board and executive managers were dissolved when Etisalat left and no new appointments were made.
“The interim executive that 9mobile put to run and manage the relationship with Huawei couldn’t manage it,” one former employee said.
A new brand with old problems
In 2018, the NCC stepped in to stabilise the company for acquisition. Two bidders Globacom and Teleology Holdings were shortlisted. According to two people familiar with the matter, Globacom lost out to Teleology Holdings because the NCC reasoned it would create an undue advantage for the Nigerian-owned telco in the industry. Teleology Holdings won the bid in February 2018 but the marriage was short-lived. 9mobile had accumulated so much debt that the new owners needed to raise funding to keep the business afloat. 9mobile also owed several vendors, including Huawei.
Teleology Holdings could not raise the $500 million needed to keep the company running. 9mobile’s service quality suffered because the company could not afford crucial infrastructure investments such as deploying fibre optic cables across the country and building additional base tower stations.
NCC data shows 9mobile lost approximately 8.6 million subscribers between August 2016 and 2023. From January to October 2024, it lost an additional 10.4 million subscribers following an NCC industry audit that removed subscribers without proper NIN-SIM registration from the system. The telco currently has a 2.1% share of the market.
Leadership turnover and operational disjoint
9mobile attempted to address the subscriber decline with leadership changes hoping the new CEOs would bring fresh ideas to move the company forward. However, the exit of Etisalat in 2017 and the reduction in infrastructure funding meant the CEOs had little to work with. Five CEOs have led 9mobile from late 2017 to 2023, the highest turnover among Nigeria’s top four telecom operators within the period. The leadership changes include Boye Onasanya (2017-2018), Stephane Beuvelet (2018-2020), Alan Sinfield (2020-2021, Juergen Peschel (2021-2023, and Obafemi Banigbe (2023-present).
“After Etisalat left, there was little due diligence,” one person close to the company told TechCabal.
Another industry expert said boardroom fights that continued after Etisalat’s exit didn’t allow the CEOs to carry out their responsibilities. Thomas Etuh, founder of LightHouse, reportedly met some boardroom opposition in acquiring the company.
In 2020, 9mobile secured a payment service bank (PSB) licence from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and launched 9PSB. It was not the expected game-changer considering the restrictions on what PSBs can offer, such as lending, insurance, and receiving foreign deposits. PSBs can issue debit and prepaid cards in their names and operate electronic wallets, offer basic financial advisory services and facilitate payments and remittance.
Before securing the licence, 9mobile had no footprint in mobile money service, unlike MTN Nigeria and Airtel Africa which dominated the market in different African countries. The two telcos had been at the forefront of pushing the CBN to grant the PSB licence to telcos. The CBN bypassed them and issued the licence to 9mobile and Globacom. MTN Nigeria and Airtel got their licence in 2021 and launched the service in 2022.
The restrictions on PSBs also tamed the expectations of the two biggest telcos. To expand its scope in the financial services industry, MTN Nigeria applied for two additional licences, Payment Solutions Service Provider (PSSP) and Payment Terminal Service Provider (PTSP) in November 2024.
New owners and mounting cost of operations
In June 2023, LightHouse Telecoms finalised a $750 million acquisition of 9mobile. The deal, announced in July 2024, has not had the immediate impact expected to shift the company’s trajectory. The telco is yet to announce any capital spending on infrastructure, according to one person with knowledge of the matter. Also, as the company’s subscribers continuously stay in decline, recouping investor capital from users’ revenue may not be easy. With an annual average revenue per user (ARPU) of ₦1,616, the telco generates just ₦5.87 billion ($3.5 million) annually; LightHouse Telecoms will need 214 years to recover its $750 million from subscriber revenue.
Infrastructure deficits remain a major problem for 9mobile. With only 4,620 km of fibre compared to MTN’s 39,972 km, the company relies heavily on 48,957 km of microwave links, which are less effective in urban areas. The sale of its telecom towers to IHS further limits flexibility. Frequent fiber cuts and the inability of 9mobile engineers to effectively manage the servers inherited from Huawei worsened service issues, particularly in Lagos.
Two former employees told TechCabal that the fibre cables connecting Ajah, Sangotedo, and parts of Epe to the 9mobile network had suffered multiple cuts since 2022, and nothing has been done to repair the damage. 9mobile subscribers within the location currently can’t make direct calls using their lines; they can only make WhatsApp calls, said three subscribers who live in the area.
Fibre cuts are an industry-wide problem that operators must spend a lot of money to repair. Between 2022 and 2023, the Nigerian telecom industry reportedly spent approximately ₦14 billion to address 59,000 fiber cuts, averaging around ₦237,000 per incident. Rising deployment costs due to the naira devaluation also contributed to the problem.
“Many telcos have paused deploying fibre in Nigeria due to costs and naira devaluation. At one point, deploying fibre cost $7,000 per kilometre, with base stations valued at $200,000,” said telecom expert Ayoola Oke.
9mobile is also losing its physical structures nationwide due to a lack of funding. Several of its 84 experience centres are out of service or providing skeletal services.
“I don’t think there are more than three 9mobile experience centres in the whole of Lagos that are functioning to capacity. In Abuja, most of the experience centres are not running to full capacity,” one person with knowledge of the matter told TechCabal. The company lists 17 experience centres in Lagos and 9 in Abuja.
The same person said some employees left the company to work for competitors due to a lack of incentives like improved salaries from the new owners. 9mobile has 1,948 employees, according to Pitchbook.
“The new owners did not increase salaries or provide anything new, so people are leaving,” another former employee told TechCabal.
Some employees began to resign after Huawei cancelled its contract with 9mobile in 2021 and left behind engineers managing the telco network, one person familiar with the matter said.
In the Etisalat days, Huawei was responsible for the engineers – the majority of whom were on contract, providing salary, benefits, and training. These engineers became full-time employees of 9mobile. However, over time many of the engineers have been poached by competitors.
“In this year (2024) alone, I know about 10 of them that have joined Airtel,” one former employee told TechCabal. Huawei is currently the managed service provider of Airtel.
The road to recovery for 9mobile
While the market anticipates a significant capital injection and infrastructure expansion from 9mobile’s new owners, steps are being taken to strengthen the company’s leadership. In August 2023, it appointed Obafemi Banigbe as CEO, followed by the appointments of John Vasikaran as COO and Ayodeji Adedeji as Chief Technical and Information Officer in July 2024. 9mobile said in a statement that these changes aim to stabilise the company and position it for the future.
One of the new leadership ambitions is to utilise roaming with other network providers with a presence in different parts of the country, said one person with knowledge of the matter. Roaming will allow subscribers to make and receive calls, send and receive messages, and use data outside of 9mobile’s coverage areas. The roaming service will help to increase the reach of the 9mobile network and reduce the cost of infrastructure deployment.
“They expect to launch the roaming service before the end of next year. They have been talking to other operators for a deal,” said the same person. That discussion is with MTN Nigeria and Airtel Africa.
In the meantime, 9mobile still generates revenue from its enterprise customers who pay for their service in bulk.
Gbenga Adebayo, President of the Association of Licenced Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), said the brand has massive potential including infrastructure, subscribers and other physical assets that the new owners can exploit regardless of the company’s decline.
“The company needs to restart to tap those potentials. It is a known brand; hence restarting will put it on the trajectory for growth,” Adebayo told TechCabal.
With its new owners, a new board of directors, and a new management team in place, 9mobile has a real opportunity to recover and reclaim its competitive position in Nigeria’s telecom market. It will need to leverage its financial strength and tap into the history of strong corporate leadership across multiple companies overseen by its newly appointed board members, such as Daisy Danjuma and Gloria Danjuma, both representing the interests of the TY Danjuma Group. The TY Danjuma Group oversees a multi-billion naira portfolio of companies spanning various sectors, including oil and gas, hospitality, real estate, agriculture, and insurance.
But money and corporate culture alone will not immediately push 9mobile to the top of the telecom industry dominated by MTN Nigeria and Airtel. 9mobile needs to bring back its creative juice and remind millions of young subscribers why it got them “talking.”