 Following mobile phone competition, SONITEL was widely criticised for poor performance, faced a series of protests and strikes by its workers over pay and conditions, and accumulated debts of 40 billion FCFA despite a 140% increase in user fees.On 13 February 2009, the government of Niger announced it was "canceling" the privatisation of SONITEL, although it hoped to eventually re-privatise the company.The Minister of Communications stated that the process had "failed", and the government would retain a 100% share in SONITEL, and form a new administration of the company.