HARARE Econet Wireless Zimbabwe has secured a US$50 million loan from the African Export Import Bank (Afreximbank) to be used for the mobile phone operators ongoing network expansion programme, the company announced last week.The facility is part of a US$200m funding package which the company has mobilised, including supplier facilities which were announced towards the end of last year. Announcing the facility, Econet chief executive Douglas Mboweni said the Afreximbank loan was part of the funding to increase the networks capacity to five million subscribers by the middle of the year.
“We are currently sitting on a core capacity of 5.1 million but we need to install a lot of base stations between now and June to fully realise that capacity in terms of customers, Mboweni said.
The Econet boss said part of the money had also been used to buy equipment for the completion of the 3G network. “I can confirm that we have paid for the full 3G network. We are
installing the full system in all the major cities. The small system in Harare will be expanded by a factor of ten, and will be much faster after the expansion,” he said.
Econet currently has more than three million customers, which represents close to 80 percent of Zimbabwes four million cell phone users.
Post published in: Economy