Sierra Leone’s telecoms watchdog, the National Telecommunications Commission (NATCOM), has announced that effective 13 October 2014, the operational license granted to Comium Sierra Leone will be revoked, following the company’s failure to settle its debts, reports Telegeography.com on Oct 10, 2014. The regulator said in a Public Notice published on 7 October 2014 that it has held ‘several meetings with representatives of the company in a bid to have the financial liabilities of the company addressed in the interest of the sector’, but talks ultimately proved ’futile’.

In January 2014 NATCOM issued Comium with a 21-day notice of suspension of its license and the utilization of the resources allocated to it. Following an intervention by the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC), the debt-ridden operator was given a three-month extension period to pay its creditors; the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was further prolonged on two occasions, in May and August 2014.