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| Angolan telecommunications minister asks for “patience” for Africell to fulfill tender requirements |
"We need to go through all the stages of the process and have patience that we also want to provide information and a good service", explained José Carvalho da Rocha, adding that several companies participated in the tender for the new operator.
Lebanese Africell was the candidate selected by the Angolan government to submit a proposal to grant a license to become the fourth telecommunications operator in Angola, as announced last week.
According to the interministerial working group - made up of the ministers of Finance, Telecommunications and Information Technologies and of Economy and Planning - three companies requested parts of the tender (MTN of South Africa, Africell Holding SAL of Lebanon and BAI Investimentos de Angola ), but only the Lebanese has formalized the application.
According to the official who spoke on the sidelines of the 11th Communications Forum of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP), which took place until Friday, 13, in Luanda, the contest was "based on the terms of reference".
"Now, the costs, the financial and technical analysis will now be presented for the evaluation and I cannot refer until the team has finished the work," said the minister.
According to José Carvalho da Rocha, Africell now has 60 days to respond to the specifications and, if it does not do so in that period, the law allows it “to extend the term”, but “everything depends on it”.
"After that, there will be an evaluation by the interministerial commission if, in fact, what it presented corresponds with what are the requirements of the terms of reference", he stressed.
Africell is an international operator, with 18 years of activity in the telecommunications sector, providing mobile, Internet, subscription television and “mobile money” services to more than 12 million customers.
The company is already present in four African countries: The Gambia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone and Uganda.
Angola currently has three operators, with Unitel leading the market, with around 80% share, ahead of Movicel, with about 20%, and Angola Telecom (state company in the process of privatization) with a position residual.
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