African telecommunications firm Africell plans to spend part of a US$100mn credit line on expanding its infrastructure and fintech services
Africell founder and chief executive Ziad Dalloul announced the expansion plan.
The company, which has 15mn subscribers across its four African operations, secured the loan in May from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the private investment fund of the US government.
The founder said the money would help fund investments in infrastructure for its operations in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, and Sierra Leone.
He stated that it would help the company expand fintech services such as mobile payments, micro-insurance, and micro-finance.
Mobile money payments, pioneered in Kenya, have expanded rapidly in other African nations where many people have no bank accounts.
Dalloul added that Africell would bid to become Angola’s fourth operator, which was expected to reissue a tender in the next two months after the original license tender was cancelled in April.
He noted that Angola was attractive because the state-owned Angola Telecom had a large market share that could be vulnerable to a more aggressive private operator like Africell.
“Africell had US$300mn, separate from the OPIC credit line, to spend on a new market like Angola within the first year of commencing business if they secured a licence,” he concluded.
