Facilitating access to telephone networks in Uganda and Malawi
On 11th June 2007, PROPARCO signed financing agreements each worth US$ 3.5 million with mobile phone operators CELTEL MALAWI and CELTEL UGANDA. These loans are part of a large-scale syndication put in place by the IFC simultaneously in the five countries in which the CELTEL group is present and which has scheduled sizeable investments totalling US$ 260 million, split between loan A, loan B and PROPARCO’s and DEG’s parallel loans.
These loans should allow the operators to continue to develop their networks, thus providing increased network coverage, while improving and diversifying their range of services to the local populations. Through these financing agreements, PROPARCO, alongside the IFC, is helping to encourage a sector with important economic repercussions, both direct and indirect (developing access to telephone services, job creation, generating substantial tax revenues, facilitating and improving exchanges between professionals…) as well as helping to support CELTEL, an internationally renowned and responsible operator, whose actions within the community and whose involvement in their operations and known and acknowledged internationally.