Telecoms Firm Briclinks Africa Plans N500m Public Offer

Briclinks Africa Plc,  telecommunications firm, has unveiled ambitious plans to bolster its share capital base.

The company intends to raise an impressive N500 million through a public offering of ordinary shares priced at N50 kobo each.

This move includes the issuance of rights shares.

It is also considering a direct/indirect loan facility to kick start the mobile virtual network operator licence (MVNO).

Managing director and chief executive officer of Briclinks, Mohammed Buhari gave the projected outlines while delivering a speech at the inaugural Annual General Meeting which held in Abuja yesterday.

He revealed that the firm was operating at the moment in Nigeria and Kenya, with prospects of boosting its product and services to meet over 140 million African migrants with communication and international calling to connect with their friends and family world-wide.

He said the firm intends to become the most sought after brand in the provision of fast and affordable mobile internet services.

Going down memory lane on how the firm has evolved over the years, Buhari said following the impact of the Covid-19 in the year 2019, economic activities picked up around the end of 2020, and by December of the same year,the company was issued a Private Network Links (PNL) by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in order to provide mobile internet service and voice calls.

He went on to reveal that despite the effect the company felt from the pandemic, it still managed to deliver a solid growth performance in what was an extremely challenging year.

“As expected, our markets were impacted by the pandemic: For the whole of 2020 the market declined by six per cent to $26.5 billion and revenues were down by five per cent compared with 2019. But at the same time, we as a new player in the industry remain committed to performing while we transform the affairs of the company. And over the years,We are beginning to show that, and at the same time deliver competitive cash returns for our investors.

“There need not be a choice on our part,But this all starts with the work we have put in over the years. And in February 2021, after many years of rigorous documentation,the company became enlisted on the Growth Board of the Nigerian Stock Exchange,” Buhari said .

He said the company made a breakthrough in 2018, when it was issued its first licence for Internet Service Provider (ISP), and the company commenced operation the same year by setting up the infrastructure to provide fixed wireless broadband services in Abuja, Akwa Ibom and Lagos.

At the AGM which had some board members and shareholders attending virtually, Seinde Fadeni was elected as non-executive chairman, while Olumuyiwa Olumekun, Feraz Javed Ahmed and Olajumoke Maikal were elected as independent directors.

The managing director equally estimated that it is working to bridge a $1.7 billion total market demand for telecom services in Nigeria,adding that with a population of 210 million citizens, their target market is 10 million.

He put the identified target market within the next 5 years in Nigeria at the age bracket of 15 and 65 years.

“We intend for our marketing strategy to put more emphasis on corporate marketing such as social media branding and advertisements, segmenting and targeting among other formal and informal strategies we plan to adopt,” he said.