Econet eyes 10m subscribers

expected to see its investment in Zimbabwe exceed US$1 billion, the largest ever in the country’s history,” the corporate communications manager Mr Ranga Mberi said yesterday.
Apart from increasing its carrying capacity, the new equipment would enable Econet to offer other network-based valued added services. This follows the approval by the Econet board of directors to “mop up” the remaining demand for mobile phone lines in the Zimbabwe market. Econet said that shipment of the equipment, which began in the last few days, was expected to continue into the better part of next year.
The equipment is being supplied by Ericsson of Sweden and the Chinese company ZTE.
Econet has also stepped up its efforts to diversify its activities into new business areas that depend on its network. By far the largest investment effort is in EcoCash, its mobile banking platform. The company said it was developing EcoCash to alleviate the acute shortage of cash in the economy. EcoCash has brought immeasurable convenience for the public by making it easier to transact without, necessarily, having to use cash. Another innovative investment Econet has undertaken is the provision of solar-powered lighting, which depends on the cellphone network. A new service, the Home Power Station (HPS), has already gone into full pre-commercial trials for the first time. Econet said by Christmas, the product could light up many homes in rural areas, which are not connected to the national power grid.
Econet currently has about six million subscribers, followed by Telecel with just over two million and Net- One with 1,4 million.
Econet chief executive Mr Douglas Mboweni earlier this year said they were in discussions with unnamed international banks for a US$307 million syndicated loan facility to finance capital projects.
Funding from the banks would go towards expansion of data services and introduction of innovative products to create more value, improve service quality and increase revenue.
Having sunk a whopping US$614 million over the last four years, Econet contends the foundation is now firmly in place. What remained was expansion and driving usage of services. Mr Mboweni said with mobile phone penetration at an average 74 percent, huge opportunities to attain optimum penetration lay in investing in capacity expansion. Econet posted a 24 percent growth in revenue to US$611 million in the full year to February 2012, which saw it register a 17 percent increase in after-tax profit to US$165 million.
Finance director Mr Kris Chirairo attributed revenue growth to the growing subscriber base and growth in usage of the mobile telecommunication and data services the firm offers. Voice calls accounted for the biggest chunk to Econet’s full year revenue inflows, increasing from 66 percent in 2011 to 68 percent this year. Data services contributed 13 percent to group revenues.