The $225 million investment from Dubai-based Rowad Capital Commercial (RCC) LLC, which will also purchase a 60% majority stake in Uganda Telecommunication Corp. (UTel), will go towards Uganda’s state-run telecom.
The investment has been discussed since the beginning of the year and is the result of a meeting that President Yoweri Museveni and representatives of the RCC had in October 2023.
The agreement should help UTel, founded in 2021 and acquired assets from Uganda Telecom Limited in 2022, a company with financial difficulties.
Uganda is looking forward to a major investment from Rowad Capital Commercial (RCC) LLC, a global engineering and construction contractor.
The company is set to invest $225 million in its state-run telecom, Uganda Telecommunication Corp. (UTel), and take a majority stake.
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Analyzing the Impact of RCC’s Share Acquisition on UTel
After everything is settled, the Dubai-based RCC will acquire sixty per cent of the shares in UTel. Uganda’s ICT chief, Aminah Zawedde, made reference to this, but she did not say whether the investment also pays for the acquisition of that share.
According to a media report, talks have been ongoing since early this year after RCC officials met with President Yoweri Museveni in October 2023.
Uganda Telecommunications Corporation Limited (UTCL), commonly referred to as UTel, was established on April 8, 2021, as the country’s national telecommunications provider. This move was part of a broader effort to revamp the country’s telecommunications sector and improve citizens’ services.
UTel was formed after taking over the assets and business of Uganda Telecom Limited (UTL), which had been facing financial difficulties and was subsequently placed under receivership in November 2022.
As a result, UTel inherited UTL’s infrastructure, customers, and other resources and has since been working to upgrade and expand its services to meet the growing demands of Uganda’s telecommunications market.
This came after they took over the assets and business from Uganda Telecom Limited (UTL) in November 2022, which had been struggling financially and was placed under receivership.
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Utel faces a deadline to list shares on the stock exchange.
The ministries of finance and ICT currently own Utel. By law, telecom firms operating in Uganda must list on the stock exchange; significant participants, including MTN Uganda and Airtel Uganda, have already done so.
Fred Otunnu from the Uganda Communications Commission says UTel has two years from January 2024 to list at least 20% of its shares, but this could change based on how fast it meets the listing requirements.
Today, UTel is owned by the Ugandan government, specifically the finance and ICT ministries, and is expected to play a vital role in driving the country’s digital transformation and economic growth.