Airtel Nigeria In Talks With NSE For Listing On Nigerian Stock Exchange

A meeting was recently held at the headquarters of the Nigerian Communications Commission in Abuja and had representatives from all three organisations in attendance. These included the Managing Director and CEO of Bharti Airtel Africa Raghunath Mandava; the Managing Director of Airtel Nigeria Segun Ogunsanya; The CEO of the Nigerian Stock Exchange Oscar Onyema; and the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC Prof Umar Danbatta.

According to reports, two senior officials of Stanbic IBTC attended the meeting, and The Security and Exchange Commission also had representatives present.

The Nigerian news reporter, Punch learnt that Airtel might be pursuing a listing in the Nigerian Stock Exchange in response to its primary competitor in the Nigerian market, MTN Nigeria’s indication that it would be seeking a listing in the NSE by introduction before mid-year.

There is also a bill that aims to compel Nigeria’s telecommunications operators to list in the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

The NCC’s Prof Danbatta told journalists that the NCC was happy with Airtel’s expansion programme as well as the broadband penetration that had been made possible by Airtel and other operators.

Mandava, the Airtel Africa CEO, described Nigeria as Airtel’s largest and fastest growing market in Africa.

He added that Airtel is committed to investing heavily in Nigeria and is on a mission to help digitise the country.

The NSE boss had not yet made any comments on the matter at the time.

—nigeriacommunicationsweek.com.ng