Zamtel should have been sold to Zambians - ZDC

Zamtel should have been sold to Zambians - ZDC
By Chibaula Silwamba and Mutale Kapekele
Sat 26 June 2010, 12:00 CAT

ZAMBIA Diaspora Connect (ZDC) chairperson Musaba Chailunga has said Zamtel must have been sold 100 per cent to Zambians. And Chailunga said Zambia Diaspora Connect, a non political organization of Zambians living abroad, is working on a project to build houses for teachers on mortgage basis.

Meanwhile, the Board of Commissioners of the Zambia Competition Commission (ZCC) has granted authorization for the takeover of 75 percent share capital of Zamtel by Lap Green Networks of Libya, citing lack of adverse competition and consumer concerns in the transaction.

In a walk-in interview at The Post newspapers offices in Lusaka, Chailunga, who is based in Canada, said he supported the privatization of Zamtel but feels the parastatal would have been better if it were sold to locals.

“I would like to make it clear that I personally support the idea to privatise Zamtel and I believe that most businesses should be run by private enterprise and not government.

But the only problem that I find, and others may choose to disagree, is that Zamtel is a problem that Zambians should have solved. I am confident and I know that there is a good number of Zambians that, if properly consulted, they could have come up with a better solution for Zamtel,” Chailunga said.

“What I mean is that I would have loved Zamtel to be privatized but to be 100 per cent Zambian owned. There could have been a way to find the money to make it better. I think that there are some people who say that Zamtel is too big if you look at the number of employees and the size of the country. I don’t think about 2, 000 employees is too big.”

He said his position on the sale of Zamtel was non-political.

“I know that a lot of people have made this issue very political issue; I don’t want anyone to think that I am making a political statement,” he said.

Chailunga said had Zamtel been sold to Zambians, the profits from the fixed line and mobile phone service provider could have been kept locally.

On Zambia Diaspora Connect’s housing project for teachers, Chailunga observed that teachers did not have sufficient accommodation hence his organization’s decision to come up with a housing scheme for them.

“We also want to involve unions, teachers themselves and the private sector to be part of the funding system that can promote home ownership in the teaching industry. If that works out then we can move it forward to other industries,” Chailunga said.
He said the project would be on going and the beneficiary teachers would have to pay back the money.

“We will work with financial institutions. What we have noticed is that teachers cannot borrow money from commercial banks because the interest rates are too high; if the teachers can start contributing slowly and we borrow money from somewhere and is administered by a financial institution here – you create a consortium of private sector, teachers and unions – so that they can borrow money from their own fund to pay for the financing of the homes,” said Chailunga.

“We have to talk to government to provide us land, which is ideal and near to schools and our aim is to do that anywhere where there is need for houses for teachers.”

And in a statement released by ZCC director for public relations Brian Lingela, the 16th special Board of commissioners meeting held on Friday, 18th June 2010 in Lusaka, recognized that the sale of Zamtel posed no competition concerns.

“After considering the submissions by the applicants and other parties, as well as the competition analysis before it, the Commissioners resolved to authorise the transaction to be effected in Zambia as the transaction would not likely raise any competition concerns that may lead to any adverse effects in the internet, fixed landline and mobile phone provision sectors, on trade or the economy in general in Zambia.

This was viewed to be primarily because LAP Green Network does not have any known business presence in any of the ICT sectors in Zambia to raise competition concerns,” he stated.

Lingela stated that in granting authorisation, the Commissioners held that apart from the fact that there were no competition concerns to the transaction, Zamtel had been insolvent and that the takeover was going to raise the levels of competition and consumer welfare.

And ZCC executive director Thula Kaira stated that it was hoped that Lap Green would assist in reducing the perceived high communication costs in Zambia.

“It is our expectation that once Zamtel operates as a competitive business, it would inevitably result into lower tariffs for consumers and increased coverage for its subscribers. Over the past few years, Cell Z has remained a slow market follower despite its tremendous potential and initial public support that was generated when it was re-launched as a GMS service provider…,” stated Kaira.

With this acquisition, Zambia becomes LAP Green Networks’ latest addition to the company’s footprint, which also includes telecommunication companies in Uganda, Rwanda, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone and Togo.

LAP Green networks is a telecommunications operator owned by Libyan African Investment Portfolio (LAP)./JC