
Orange has completed the sale of its entire 95.5% stake in Orange Niger to Zamani Com. Zamani Com is owned by Mohamed Rissa of Rimbo Invest and Moctar Thiam of Greenline Communications, both minority shareholders of
Orange Niger. This concludes the agreement signed between the two parties in August this year.
The telco’s services will however continue to be marketed under the Orange brand during the transition period.
“The Africa and Middle East region remains a strategic priority for the Orange Group. However, the market environment in Niger has led Orange to make this decision responsibly, prioritising business continuity for the benefit of the company’s customers and protecting the interests of the women and men working at Orange Niger.
Orange would like to thank the employees at Orange Niger for the work accomplished since the subsidiary’s creation and the teams who worked on the company takeover project,” said Orange in a statement.
In March this year, ITWeb reported that Orange Niger was considering various options, including restructuring and partnerships, as grappled with regulatory pressures arising from the country’s socio-economic and political uncertainty.
According to Orange Group’s financial report for the year ended December 31, 2018, the Niger subsidiary recorded depreciation of its fixed assets to €52-million in 2017 and lowered to €43-million euros in 2018.
In late November 2018, the General Tax Directorate of Niger issued an order to close the telco’s premises in the country’s capital Niamey over an outstanding tax bill of approximately US $38 million). The premises were later reopened after the telco paid an undisclosed amount.
Orange is among four telcos operating in Niger. Figures released by the country’s industry regulator, the Regulatory Authority for Telecommunications and Post (RATP), indicated that there were 7.7 million subscribers mobile subscribers in the country out of a total population of 19 million.
Orange has a total subscriber base of 268 million worldwide (as at September 30, 2019), including 209 million mobile customers and 21 million fixed broadband customers. The Group is present in 27 countries.
Be the first to comment