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Furthermore, the firm has been sucked into the row pitting directors Mr James Makamba and Mrs Jane Mutasa, who constituted the Empowerment Corporation. The Sunday Mail (SM) Business last week engaged the Telecel Zimbabwe chief executive officer, Mr Amiable Mpore (AM), to get his views over these and other pertinent issues.
SM: Could you shed light on the current shareholding structure of Telecel Zimbabwe.
AM: Telecel International owns 60 percent, while Empowerment Corporation owns 40 percent.
SM: As far as indigenisation is concerned, how far has Telecel Zimbabwe complied?
AM: Telecel International has putx forward proposals to the Zimbabwean Government for complying with the country’s indigenisation laws and the regulations governing the telecommunications sector, both of which require foreign shareholding to be reduced to 49 percent.
It is not as simple a matter as some people might think, particularly where the international partner has secured much of the funding needed for growth.
Ways of reducing the foreign shareholding that still enable the company to develop need to be looked at. Government is currently considering Telecel International’s proposals. Telecel awaits its feedback.
SM: There are issues that Telecel has no operating licence. What is your comment on this and how far have you gone in resolving this with the regulator Potraz?
AM: It is not strictly speaking true that Telecel has no licence.
While it is true that Potraz decided to cancel Telecel’s licence, an appeal against this decision was made to the relevant minister.
Potraz’s decision was thus suspended, pending the outcome of this appeal, which is why it has been allowed to continue operating.
The ministry has not yet made a determination on Telecel’s appeal.
SM: There is the issue of foreigners working at Telecel. You are from Rwanda. Could you shed light as to what your company policy on expatriates is.
AM: The company’s policy is to employ locals wherever possible.
However, there are some areas where the company has considered it would benefit from the expertise and foreign experience of expatriates who in many cases have had greater exposure to the latest technology and trends in mobile communications than most Zimbabweans have had.
It was knowledge of the pricing structures of mobile phone networks elsewhere that resulted in Telecel last year slashing the price of SIM cards to more realistic levels, a move that benefited not only Telecel customers but Zimbabweans in general, who previously had been expected to pay prices that were way beyond those in other countries.
Most of the few expatriates working at Telecel Zimbabwe come from other African countries.
I find it sad that, with moves towards greater African unity and regional integration and with so many Zimbabweans working as expatriates in other countries, so much fuss should be made here about African expatriates working for a Zimbabwean company and helping it grow and develop.
The Chief Technical Officer of Rwandatel, for instance, is a Zimbabwean.
I am sure nobody has ever reminded him that he is a foreigner. Before I came to Zimbabwe, I was working in many other countries which are not my home country.
The expatriates we have here are on fixed contracts and are working to serve Zimbabwe.
They are transferring their experience to Zimbabweans.
The fuss that has been made about foreigners emanates from people who are disgruntled.
In some cases, this disgruntlement seems to have been the result of them finding that controls have been tightened to prevent abuse of systems and resources. Some people don’t like that. Foreigners provide a convenient scapegoat for those who resent such changes.
SM: There seems to be bad blood between yourself and chairperson Mrs Jane Mutasa, which is affecting the organisation one way or the other. How do you respond to this?
AM: Jane Mutasa is not the chairperson of Telecel Zimbabwe and never has been.
She was at one point acting chairperson but no longer holds that position. Having said that, I have no personal problem with Mrs Mutasa.
It is unfortunate that she has chosen to make unfounded allegations against the company.
No doubt she is unhappy about her suspension from the Telecel board and the allegations of fraud that were made against her last year.
However, let me be quick to say that is not a matter I can comment on.
SM: Out of curiosity. How profitable is Telecel Zimbabwe?
AM: We are in a massive investment phase. As you know, last year we won an award for the most rapid market penetration in the Sadc region.
Our business prospects look good. However, we suffer from the same challenges as most Zimbabwean companies, such as liquidity shortages and difficulties attracting investment.
The unwillingness of some of our competitors to share infrastructure, which is standard practice internationally nowadays, results in our having to make investments in separate infrastructure.
This investment could have been better used in other places where there is no infrastructure and where it could have added to the overall Zimbabwean communication infrastructure. Settlement of bills by some of our competitors remains an issue that has a negative impact on our cashflow.
SM: At one time there were issues of racism within your organisation. What do you have to say about this?
AM: I am not aware of any issues of racism within our organisation. There seems to have been a tendency for some people to make unfounded and unproven allegations.
I have no evidence of there ever having been any racism within our organisation.
SM: Your company has embarked on a massive rollout expansion programme. What is the cost of this programme and when is it expected to be completed?
AM: We are on a drive to provide network coverage for the whole country.
We would like our services to be readily available to everyone no matter where they may be.
This is obviously a significant investment but I am not in a position to disclose the cost or say precisely when we expect to have achieved this target.
What is important, I believe, is that we are working towards covering the whole country and are making significant progress in that direction.
SM: There were issues of the rollout being given to foreign companies. What transpired and what is the correct position on the matter?
AM: The correct position is that, because of the technology involved, much of the equipment we buy is not produced in Zimbabwe.
Some that is produced locally cannot be produced in sufficient quantities and as quickly as we would like for the fast rollout of base stations we desire.
However, wherever possible, consistent with our requirements, particularly in terms of quality, we give preference to local companies.
SM: When will you be introducing 3G? You seem to be lagging behind as far as technology is concerned.
AM: It depends on what you call technology. It is true that we started the 3G project later than some of our competitors but our approach to launching the service is different to theirs.
We are doing our best to ensure that by the time the service is fully commercially launched the customer will be able to enjoy the experience of a high quality reliable service.
We are already operating a 3G service on a trial basis that a good number of our customers are already using. However, we have not yet started charging them for it.
There are other areas where we are, in fact, ahead of our competitors on the technological front.
If you want, for instance, to engage in mobile banking, where you can use your mobile phone to transfer money, to buy airtime and to make purchases, you need to have a Telecel line.
Our Skwama mobile banking platform is unique.
This is an important area where we are way ahead of the competition.
SM: You seem to have overtaken NetOne in terms of subscribers. What is your current subscriber base and what is your target?
AM: It is quite some time back now that we overtook NetOne in terms of subscribers. Our customer base is 1,6 million. Disconnecting subscribers who have not registered their lines will obviously have an impact on the number of subscribers.-The Sundaym Mail
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