State owned Telecommunications Company, Zamtel needs a capitalization of US$300 million for it to become more viable.
Transport, Works, Supply and Communication Minister Yamfwa Mukanga says government may not however provide the whole US$300 million to capitalize Zamtel.
Mr. Mukanga says government wants to establish how best it can improve operations of Zamtel through capital refinancing.
He says government is also considering bringing an investor on board to assist improving the telecommunications company’s operations.
And Mr. Mukanga has disputed assertions that government interference in the operation of parastatal companies like Zamtel is what has led to their underperformance.
He says as Minister under whose ministry Zamtel falls, he has left decision making to its board.
Mr. Mukanga states that red tape of government operation is what makes parastatals like Zamtel not to perform as other private companies like Airtel and MTN having been performing.
He says unlike the quick decision making and funding in these private entities, decisions in state owned companies take long because of the bureaucratic stages.
Just sell the damn thing.
Name one government owned institution that has flourished. Nada.
Everything that government touches turns to…..crap.
The first thing that comes to mind is that the Libians, from whom we snatched this company from, would have been dealing with this headache. And paying Zambian people salaries while trying very hard to remain competitive in the market. That would have meant “No pressure on tax payers money”.
Some what Sata thought he knew better and that ZAMTEL was such a profitable company that the sell to the Libians was simply a corruption scandle my RB. In three years Zamtel is on its knees and will soon be a drain on the national coffers.
Ati…patriotism! My foot and how primitive we remain…
First fire Mwanakatwe. He has failed to pay back a public loan and you think he can run ZAMTEL. Secondly its obvious you are saying this because of the Eurobond. Bane efyo yapwila Eurobond.
When the Libyans were forced out 4G was about to be launched then came the current MD with his harebrain schemes and adverts and sponsorships and less services.
What happened to the rotten Sata commission that concluded that Zamtel was profitable and should not have been sold? That was the basis for re-nationalising. The Libyans have not been compensated and instead PF paid $125m to the Chinese ZTE for the work they did when the Libyans owned Zamtel. On top of that, Chipuba Mukanga now wants another $300m to paper over the cracks and to steal. These PFools are Pathetic Failures, indeed. Zamtel can never compete.
@IndigoTyrol,we cannot sell everything!! There are times when we should re-look our approach and ask ourselves what we have benefited from what we have sold so far. Yes,there are some benefits but in some cases there are total losses where after being sold companies closed,got stripped with production lines shifted to neighboring countries.Telecoms is most of the time profitable business but in this era of globalization where huge economies of scale matter,Zamtel should be looking at partnering with an innovative big player otherwise risking $300m of people’s money when the economy is bad is not the best thing to do! Let government find a strong partner and float some shares so that we can have Zambian institutional and private shareholders in Zamtel!
Stealing is rampant in these INDECO like things. Funds are channelled towards elections by the bastards.
The damn thing is not making any money. Can’t you smell the coffee?
Telecommunications companies are globally making profits. Why is ZAMTEL making losses? One reason: all the collections at cross routes are banked into some politician’s account some where in plot ….as funding for pty and personal….! To prevent political abuse, sorry, sell the damn thing! Its sad our politicians are this greed!
So, according to the Minister,it is not government interference, but government incompetence, that is responsible for the poor performance. Got it
Just wondering y zambian directors are failing to run our own companies. Too much luxury….! Fire the MD and sell the parastatal…!
Hahaha Zamtel, Zambia Railways, Tazara are all bottomless pits. Even if Bill Gates gave them today $1billion each, next week they will ask for more! Zambia my land!
Sell shares to vodafone say 51 pc,they will run it properly,political appointees suck!
At least Zamtel is a bit more organised than Zesco. I am able to catalogue Zesco’s inefficiencies not connected to the ‘low water levels’ at Kariba. This organisation is the worst in the country. I have a friend who kept logging complaints from his area daily to the Zesco call centre, not even one day did the sleepy managers at Zesco bothered to call him to find out what the issue was. Very casual response to duty and quickly rushing to kariba issues and yet even without Kariba issue, this company is inept
Give equal time to the “management” (lol) of Zamtel.
What you expect, it has been only three years of mismanagement and you expect them to “outperform” decades of corruption, political 1diotism and mismanagement of our “shining light” ZESCO?
They want to feast on the 1.25 billion dollars loan.PF
I agree ,Zesco is dead, with defunct senior and divisional managers. Zamtel is a better devil
I would not put a ngwee in Zamtel. Zamtel will be killed by MTN and Airtel and ISP companies. Zamtel has no competitive advantage at all, unlike Zesco which has no competition. It is much easier to fix Zesco than Zamtel.
We told you (PF) long way back, this will be the out come when PF took over zamtel. With the likes of Kabimba and other PF cadres at the helm what did you expect? Even all these euro bond money, at some point young zambian will pay for it when they are older – i feel sorry the country
Mr. Minister, Bureaucracy or interference by the government are one in the same. What is your plan to reduce the effect of either in the future? If there is no plan the $300 million will go down the drain and we will be back to square one. Amazing how we Africans do not learn from our own mistakes. Fifty years of experimenting do not seem to have made us smarter.
This is a Libya company which should be given back ASAP, now that RB is back :in defacto control of the inisiturumentisi of power. RB you are living a very dangerous life mate. You’ve annoyed a lot of people; The Nigerian citizens in the oil scum, the Libyans lost Zamtel to SATA and strictly speaking Zamtel should be called LIBTEL by now. The Cartel is another of your enemies. How do you go to sleep with all these things hanging over you. The office of the fourth President of Zambia must be spending a fortune on Security. Who else have you screwed mate?
Truly laughable indeed…the mobile phone industry is a profitable sector the industry is expected to continue its growth momentum of 2006-2011 and reach an estimated $334.8 billion in 2017 with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 6.8% over the next five years (2012-2017). Developing regions are expected to register significant growth.
Meanwhile you have these PF empty tins in govt & those running Zamtel for the sole purpose of employing cadres & are wondering why they are recording losses…insulting our intelligence talking about recapitalization with the selfsame incompetent managers expecting to record a profit with a chunk of that recently borrowed EuroBond at a whooping 9.3% interest rate.
Wake up Zambian people from your folly and docility!!
Ba Pf how many mistakes could you make in just 4 months power? Too many irrational decisions!
So why did these fuzi nationalise the company? this was going to be LAP GREEN’S responsibility if they didnt.
its simple, Balitumpa Fye ba PF
Lap green failed all 3 mandatory prequalification’s rendering the transaction void GRZ acquired 75% effectively paying lap green for equity IRU between Zesco and Zamtel as a vanilla was also ill crafted as RP capital Never did a careful due diligence Zamtel assets are still valuable in licences gateway and other could even profit more from Mobile payment – a game changer in Africa earning income higher than traditional
Capital injection does not mean Zamtel is not doing better rather its to increase its operations and invest in other areas now unfolding like mobile payments etc.
What one needs to ask is the strategic plan for Zamtel and how that CAPEX will fit in there
PF just want to allocate eurobond manee to ZAMTEL as an excuse to steal.
@ Lap Green
Instead of quoting from PF “Book of Justifications”, why not consider operational and cash flow aspects of Zamtel?
As to Lap Green and GRZ, 300 millions asked are a lot less than the eventual award which owners of Lap Green will win in any type of international arbitration.
You invest in the company either from retained earnings or debt or forms of equity either private placement or market raised In this case retained earnings can only give you that capacity you may need to either look at other options like debt or equity whichever serves best your interests of your shareholders
Capital needs is not the same as operation working capital that is often met by revenues by a utility
If you look at Zamtel Segmental analysis on revenue horizontal and cross sectional yes one will agree the utility is performing below potential given Compare it in client and products range with the Nigerian,Zimbian,South African and Botswana and now the MTC…
Zamtel is an abject failure. It has no competitive advantage in any product any more. They have even discontinued their Will phone product that was good for outlying farm areas. They are last in mobile phones, Internet connectivity, and mobile payments. They are only number one in land lines which is a frozen archaic technology with its faxes, and exchanges.
Indeed. Just sell the damn thing and use the funds to refund the Libyans we defrauded.
Yaba kawena PF, you only know borrowin ,Byelections and opening shopping malls??
Just look how the corrupt PF kaponya suppoters take cover when the topic is about substantive issue affecting the nation, only to re-appear when they have a chance to bring up the ‘privstisation’ allegations against HH some 20 yrs ago….Show up gents and let’s debate.
Cancel all those expensive Zamtel adverts through which money is being stolen with immediate effect.
This was going to happen to zanaco.sata was such a dull person on economic issues but good at politics.look at all the buildings zamtel has across the country completely empty
You are right. Zamtel (and Zampost) have these mammoth buildings in each down which are completely underutilised. A start could be to divest these assets and apply the proceeds were they are need like capitalisation of productive technical infrastructure whatever it is the $300m is meant to be used for.
You do not sell the buildings You create business to save those places and how do you create business by investing into those areas
Zamtel is viable as a parastatal only if supported by you foreign subscribers unlike other countries where the ZAMTELS have been used to crowd fund Gov. projects and Cash flows
I am getting confused! Government sells Zamtel because it is not doing well, and the Libyans buy it and make it efficient and profitable. Government sets up an expensive Commission of Enquiry and grab the Company. Government complaining again that Company not doing well, looking for funding. Why then did we grab it from Lapgreen?
I mean really, they sold Zamtels 75% stake to the Libya n’s, and now if you look at the Financial Times article from a few days ago that fund are currently suing. They state that the MMD government acquired funds from the £66bn to improve Zamtel and yet they did not enjoy any if the profits. Then the PM decide to revoke the deal, instead of renegotiate. I’m failing to understand how Zamtel need an additional $300 m, when they own part of the fibre optic they took from Zesco, they own part of the spectrum and they are operating as a mobile provider. Therefore it seems a great deal of mismanagement in terms of funds, un-equipped technical or specific knowledge of the industry for this to happen. No investor will put up that cash when they have no clue as to what they are getting really.
This matter was fully addressed by the MMD Government. PF should just admit that it made a wrong decision to renationalize Zamtel, especially for political reasons backed by the Post Newspaper. The harsh reality is that Zamtel will never succeed as a parastatal. It is even completely wrong to get even a dollar from the treasury to fund Zamtel!
HONOURABLE YAMFWA:
BEFORE YOU PUT A NGWEE OF MY HARD-EARNED TAX MONEY INTO ZAMTEL, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DO THE NATURAL THING THAT ANY RIGHT THINKING BUSINESS LEADER DOES – GET RID OF NON-PERFORMING CEO AND HIS HENCHMEN. FIRE THAT MWANAKATWE. ADVERTISING ON SUPERSPORT INTERNATIONAL SURE WHEN HE CANT EVEN WIN OVER ONE CUSTOMER FROM MTN OR AIRTEL. WHAT NONSENSE. THAT IS WHERE ALL THE CASH IS GOING, USELESS ZAMTELLIGENT THIS, CONNECTED THAT AND A LOT OF OTHER WASTEFUL BUNTER THAT EARNS HIM EXACTLY ZERO EXTRA SUBSCRIBERS. SHAME.
Zamtel was sold at $270m for 75% shares , meaning it’s valued around $300m. So govt can start a new zamtel without any debt with such kind of money. Suggestion to the minister, don’t use euro bond or tax payers money to pump into zamtel, because it will never come back. What u need to do is to find equity partner to pump in the money and run it. By the equity parner or investors doesn’t necessary means foreigner. CEC is owned by Zambian and it has invested in Namibia and Nigeri. So find business minded zambian to run that zamtel