Kenya the latest African entrant to the international outsourcing market

The latest African country to take a decisive step into the international outsourcing market is Kenya. There are now between 12-15 companies offering various types of call centre and business processing work. However as a recent study commissioned by Calling the Cape from Deloittes has shown, it's not as easy as it looks to get it right. Although on one of the main indicators - call centre resolution - Cape Town scores 89% against India's 65.9%, its costs are still around double those found in India. Will it be quality or costs that will be the winner in this global market? Kenya Mugue Mugo believes she has identified a niche for her company Preciss.

How did you get into the business?

I studied IT at Moi University in Eldoret and International Business Administration in Nairobi. I've always had an interest in ICT and about 3 years ago I was invited to a conference organised by ITC Export Services. It was an opportunity to speak to businesses about what they could export in terms of services. I was one of two delegates selected to go to Geneva. I came back from that visit and registered the company in April 2002 in Delaware, USA. We began operating in August 2002 working for an online directory based in Kansas.

What work were you doing for them?

We did online research and managed the directory. We were responsible for updating entries by e-mail. In addition, we'd write to them about advertising.

In September 2002 we started doing work for an online publication in Virginia. It wanted to build a database for sales purposes. It also wanted data inputted. We were able to create a database of qualified customers.

We have three main clients currently: a UK online directory with 100,000 entries that's a competitor to Yahoo UK; and two software companies, one in Oregon and the other in Ottawa. For the latter we do data input and address list cleaning and manage databases with a million entries each. For one of them we've been working for over a year and half. In the data processing field, we can do the work and make good money from the business. Software vendors are very specialised and there's probably only 20 in the world that are completely internet-based. Obviously we sign non-disclosure agreements on our database work to give the clients confidence.

How do you market yourself?

You have to do it directly, face-to-face. We've targeted this particular sector and this sort of marketing is by its very nature labour-intensive. The next stage is to start working with outsourcing consultants in the USA and India.

How big is your call centre facility?

At present we have a ten-seat facility in Nairobi but this will grow to twenty seats shortly.

How big is the outsourcing sector in Kenya?

Well I personally visited 12 plus companies recently in preparation for a conference presentation at ACT 2004. There are a further three call centres that are in the start-up phase.

Although the data processing ones are my competition, I think there's a recognition that we need to present a common front to get business. India presents itself as a single team and Kenya needs to do the same. We've formed the Kenya ICT Service Exporters group and six out of the 12 existing companies have joined. It will: maket Kenya; seek to attract investment (both national and international), solicit government support and set standards.

What's your biggest cost?

Our largest cost is internet connectivity. It costs us USD1000 for 64 kbps a month. It should be costing us half that amount.

MAURITIUS' EMTEL ENTERS 3G RACE

Mauritian operator Emtel on Saturday last week signed an exclusive supplier agreement with Huawei Technologies for the supply, installation and commissioning of the island state's first 3G network. According to Emtel GM, Shyam Roy, the company has already successfully tested 3G, and hopes to begin roll-out of a commercial operation by sometime in December, which is around the time Vodacom initially suggested it would begin operations, although it will only announce the date of operation on 9 November.

“3G will usher in new services, improve work efficiencies and will boost the development of content provision services,” says Roy.

“While it will be incredible for a small nation like Mauritius to be so far ahead of many of the more developed nations in both the region and around the world, we do not consider it to be a race to be first – although that would be nice.”

According to Emtel, which has over 150,000 GSM users of which 85% are prepaid, the first phase of the operation is nearing completion and will provide an end-to-end solution with coverage of all major geographical areas throughout the island.

“While we are aware of the high cost of 3G handsets, some of the newer ones are no more expensive than the top end GSM handsets, and we expect the initial users of 3G in Mauritius to be from the high end of our subscriber market too,” he says.

“While the service is aimed mostly at local residents, it will also be of use to the some 700,000 tourists we host every year, and we are already in discussions with certain providers to begin offering location-based services such as where to find restaurants and the like.”

(source: IT Web)

THURAYA ENTERS LIBYAN TELECOM MARKET

Thuraya is to launch its satellite phone service in Libya. The chief of Libya's General Company for Post, and Telecommunications (GCPT), Eng. Mohamed Muammer al Gathafi announced earlier this week that the Company would distribute public telephones, to be provided by Thuraya, especially in remote areas, and desert roads.

This came during the signing of two agreements in Tripoli between the GCPT and Thuraya. The agreements allow Thuraya to launch its services and products in the Libyan market. Eng. Mohamed Muammer al Gathafi confirmed in a speech after the signing ceremony that these two agreements come to organize Thuraya phone network services in Libya, based on international laws and norms in the field of communications.

(Source: menareport.com)

VOICEWARE SYSTEMS ANNOUNCES PARTNERSHIP IN NIGERIA

Voiceware Systems announced the development of a strategic partnership with Global Digital Communications in Lagos, Nigeria. Voiceware Systems currently has seven customers in Nigeria, the company is continuously increasing their installations in this region.

“We evaluated several Prepaid Platforms and found the Voiceware Systems’ TSP is the best solution for the African market. The TSP is a pure Carrier grade Tandem Switch and we have been very impressed with their level of after-sales support. Brian Betron, President of Voiceware Systems has been very instrumental in establishing this strategic partnership and they have a very good Engineering team led by Chuck Poole, VP of Engineering. Our customers in Nigeria are satisfied with the TSP and the level of support from Voiceware,” said Chidi Ibisi, Senior Vice President Marketing, Global Digital Communications Corp.

DRC: ERICSSON PITCHES TO THE MINISTER KALEMA

Telecoms equipment supplier Ericsson last week got to make a pitch for business to the DRC's Vice Minister for Energy Kaloma Lusona at an organised by the Swedish Embassy to promote its countries companies in a range of fields. Swedish Ambassador Magnus Wernstedt told the gathering:"The DRC is in an important phase of its history as it moves towards democracy and stability. Alexis Samoury, Vice President, Central Africa region, Ericsson presented what the company could provide, pointing out that it was the principal provider of mobile network equipment in the country. It was also working with the Ministry and the incumbent OCPT on putting together contracts for various infrastructure projects to inter connect DRC with other countries in the region. Ericsson is a major shareholder in the Comtel fibre consortium which envisages linking DRC to Angola and other SADC countries.

(source: Le Phare)

CAMEROON FRAUD CASE: TWO ACCUSED OF CHEATING CAMTEL OF FCFA53M

Last Thursday saw a court case come to trial of four individuals - Ngalle Wansi, Ndongo, Tamjong, Bakabé, Sofi et Nanga - who were accused of diverting calls from a line, causing incumbent Camtel a loss of FCFA53 million (USD102,000). The line belonged to Movogo Armand, an agent for Camtel. He said that although he had ordered the line, he had never received it. Although Camtel was not represented at the Tribunal, a number of its technical staff were present. The case is complicated but from reports of the evidence it seems clear that a number of Camtel employees were involved in the fraud.

(source: Cameroon Tribune)

IN BRIEF

- Algeria's Orascom Telecom is launching a major charity campaign on behalf of its 2.5 million subscribers in order to help the poor of Algeria. For every call made, the telecom company will donate approximately half a dollar to three associations (depending on the monthly bill); the Algerian Red Cross, El Baraka for assistance to the handicapped and Kafalet el yatim, which looks after orphans.

South African cellular phone company MTN has announce a USD12 million sponsorship of African soccer's major events at a news conference in Cairo.

MTN will take over as the title sponsors of the next two African Nations Cup finals in Egypt in 2006 and Ghana in 2008 and of the African Champions League until 2010.

TELECOM RATES, OFFERS AND COVERAGE

- Over the past year, Telkom SA has deployed Alvarion’s 1.9GHz systems have been deployed in five communities (Hekpoort, Pretoria, Upington, Bloemfontein and Grahamstown) to provide service to SOHO and residential customers. Now, additional systems are being installed in suburban and rural areas lacking in existing telecom infrastructure and to upgrade others requiring replacement systems.

- Motorola is set to enter the Kenyan handset market, having quit only a few years go. The company currently favours a direct partnership sales model with national operators ahead of the scheduled full-scale market roll out.

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AFRINIC ANNOUNCES PROVSIONAL RECOGNITION FROM ICANN

The African Network Information Center (AfriNIC) has taken another step towards formal recognition as an official Regional Internet number Registry (RIR) with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Board announcing its provisional recognition, the last stage before full recognition. AfriNIC has begun managing Internet number resources for the Africa region, including IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.

AfriNIC CEO Adiel Akplogan was pleased with the progress thus far and the positive response from the Africa region. "AfriNIC is building a regional registry to meet Africa's regional needs. We are bringing regional management to our IP address distribution, and that puts the Africa region on par with the other global regions of Europe, Asia/Pacific, North America and Latin America." As part of the transition to local control of these Internet resources, AfriNIC has received expressions of support from more than 40 local Internet Service Providers representing 14 countries.

"The establishment of AfriNIC confirms the enormous growth of Internet activities in the Africa region," said Paul Twomey, President and CEO of ICANN. "We welcome AfriNIC's progression into the global ICANN community and count on its members to add their unique perspective to ICANN's policy process. This historic event ensures that the Africa region is moving to participate on an equal footing with all other regions."

The existing Regional Internet Registries, APNIC, ARIN, RIPE NCC and LACNIC, have supported AfriNIC strongly, according to Paul Wilson, Chair of the Number Resource Organisation (the coalition of RIRs): "The RIRs and our communities are extremely pleased to hear of the provisional recognition of AfriNIC by ICANN. We have worked for several years now to help make AfriNIC a success, through financial contributions, training, information sharing and inclusion in RIR activities. We commend AfriNIC staff and board for their efforts, and look forward to welcoming AfriNIC as a full member of the RIR community."

Reflecting the value of cooperative regional integration, AfriNIC has centres of Technical and Administrative Operations in four African countries: Mauritious, Ghana, South Africa, and Egypt. Sharing the work and technical responsibilities across the four centres increases AfriNIC's ongoing stability and quick responsiveness to its members.

The regional model of Internet address allocation works well in balancing the need to provide resources to new and growing Internet communities, and to manage the resources so they will be available for future users. IP addresses are a resource that is shared based on need, not demand, and that allows newcomers to have access in the same way as more established users. AfriNIC members will determine regional policy for the distribution of IP addresses to their region's Internet providers and AfriNIC has already adopted some rules that are specific to the Africa region to address the unique needs of Africa's Internet communities.

MWEB INTRODUCES NEW NIGERIAN PRODUCT AIMED AT SOHOS AND SMES

Mweb Nigeria has launched a new product targeted at small offices, home users, medium scale business as well as smaller cyber cafe. Mr. Rhyn of Mweb Nigeria said products are split into various service classes, which ensures quality of service per service class. The main differentiation of these service classes is based on the maximum number of computers connected.

Some of the benefits of this product include, consistent quality of service, excellent customer service, IP acceleration software, various solutions, 24x7 help desk with he option of onsite support, hosting directly on the European Internet backbone and web/portal development among others.

He noted that the company has entered into a Gold class service agreement with Intelsat which ensure 99.97 per cent Internet availability for Mweb customers. Mweb satellite Internet will operate off the Intelsat 907 satellite with a KU- Band footprint.

Mr. Rhyn added that Mweb Nigeria has also become the first ISP to introduce a flexible payment system for its dial-up service with the prepaid internet card, without subscription charges or contract.

"The Internet card was created as a means of ensuring that Internet access is within the reach of every Nigerian. Mweb is totally committed to bringing affordable Internet access into homes of every Nigerian and that Mweb will continue to deliver innovative Internet related products into the Nigerian market," he stated.

AFRICAN UN INITIATIVE URGES UNIVERSAL TELECOM FUND TO EXPAND INTERNET ACCESS

As access to the Internet remains limited in many rural areas in Africa, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), through its African Information Society Initiative (AISI), is looking at ways to expand online usage, especially in remote areas of the continent.

UNECA, based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, formulated the AISI action plan to help build up Africa's information and communications infrastructure. The ultimate goal is to create widespread Internet access by 2010, to support the type of so-called "information society" already a reality in other parts of the world, where populations have ready access to computer-based resources.

In trying to balance rural and urban access to the Internet, UNECA is suggesting the Universal Access Fund approach, where the telecommunications operators and ISPs (Internet service providers) contribute money in a common fund that is then utilized to provide basic telephone and Internet access in rural areas, according to Baharul Islam, a UNECA consultant with its Development Information Service Division.

"In Rwanda the telecom operators and Internet Service Providers are contributing money to a common fund -- (a) Universal Access Fund -- that is then utilized to provide basic telephone or Internet access in rural areas. This concept has worked well in Rwanda because many rural areas are connected and are able to communicate either by phone or Internet," Islam said.

Other countries in Africa, Islam says, can also employ the Universal Access Fund concept to help achieve a balance between urban and rural access to the Internet.

In Zambia the telecom operators and ISPs have said the Universal Access Fund idea is a good idea because it will attract investments in rural areas, because most investors are afraid to invest in areas where there are no communications, according to the Communications Authority of Zambia.

The Communications Authority, responsible for registering and licensing communications companies in Zambia, has said the Universal Access Fund concept is the only way to connect rural communities.

The Communications Authority has been exploring some ways in which telephone operators and ISPs can work together and take their services to rural areas, according to Susan Mulikita, director of licensing and consumer affairs.

Telephone operators and ISPs, Mulikita says, have always been agreeable to the concept of contributing some money to projects that aim at taking telecommunications to rural areas in the country.

"We have been working on a mechanism with telephone operators and ISPs on how we can source and implement the disbursement of funds for the telecommunications development in the country, especially in rural area where people are completely cut off from the rest of the world in terms of communications," Mulikita said.

Mulikita said that there are already some funds in its rural telecommunications development project, but that they are not enough to construct telephone and Internet facilities.

(SOURCE: IDG News Service)

JABBER PROTOCOLS GET INTERNET-GRADE THUMBS UP

The Internet Engineering Task Force has published the specifications for the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) as RFCs within the Internet Standards Process. These documents, which formalise the XML streaming protocols first developed by the Jabber open-source community in 1999, are the result of two years of work by the IETF's Extensible Messaging and Presence Working Group and represent the state of the art in open instant messaging (IM) and presence technologies.

The specifications published are:

* RFC 3920: Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Core - The core XML streaming technology that powers Jabber applications, including advanced security and internationalisation support.

* RFC 3921: Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP): Instant Messaging and Presence - Basic IM and presence extensions, including contact lists, presence subscriptions, and white-listing/blacklisting.

* RFC 3922: Mapping the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) to Common Presence and Instant Messaging (CPIM) - A mapping of XMPP to the IETF's abstract syntax for IM and presence.

* "RFC 3923: End-to-End Signing and Object Encryption for the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) - An extension for interoperable, end-to-end security.

"Combined with XMPP development and integration by the likes of Apple, HP, Oracle, and Sun, publication of these RFCs is yet another vote of confidence in the power of Jabber technologies," said Peter Saint-Andre, Executive Director of the Jabber Software Foundation and editor of the XMPP specifications. "We now have a stable, secure foundation for developing a wide range of presence and messaging applications and for building out the real-time Internet."

In contributing XMPP to the Internet Standards Process, the JSF ceded change control over its core technologies to the IETF. Now that the protocols have passed through the IETF's rigorous cross-area and security review, attention turns to the enormous base of Jabber servers, clients, and code libraries, which are currently being upgraded to comply with the XMPP specifications. In addition, the JSF continues to develop many popular XMPP extensions through its JEP series, covering everything from advanced IM and extended presence, to real-time content syndication, to bindings for SOAP and other application protocols.

For a list of South Africa-based Jabber servers visit JabberAfrica.org

(SOURCE: Tectonic News)

IN BRIEF

- A survey of South African local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) has found they believe faster Internet connections boost their business. The 2004 SME Survey, conducted by research firm World Wide Worx, indicates that companies experience better business performance when using a faster Internet connection.

- Ghana's conectcafe says that it is running an internet café franchise scheme with four cafes running on a 24 hour basis. The two currently up-and-running are in Osu (8,000 cedis ph) and Tema (6,000 cedis per hour). The other two in Malata and Accra Poly are temporarily down but will be back up shortly.

MOROCCAN IT SECTOR EXPERIENCES RAPID GROWTH DESPITE WIDESPREAD PIRACY

The local Moroccan press has published a series of statistics on growth in the IT industry. This has been accompanied by an investigation by the Paris-based Middle East magazine Arabies Trends. Sales of PCs in Morocco have risen by 20%.

Unlike neighboring countries, Algeria and Tunisia, Morocco has experienced a considerable decrease in piracy levels. The International Planning and Research Center estimates that pirate software in Morocco reached 82% in 1994 but dropped to 58% en 2002. According to the International Planning and Research Center, the international rate is 39%. Morocco has achieved by active government controls.

The director of Microsoft responsible for North Africa was quoted by the magazine as saying that he respects government efforts to reduce pirating, noting that pirating only hurts technological development and the national economy.

After Morocco released positive figures on technological piracy rates, Nadia Ben Bahtane, the spokesperson of the North African Business Software Alliance (BSA), responded to an international study of 86 countries that claims that piracy has reached 84% in Algeria. Internationally, piracy is thought to cost software companies USD 30 billion annually. Bahtane conceded that in Algeria alone the loss to software companies is USD 58 million.

Under international pressure, the National Algerian Office of Author Rights together with the North African Business Software Alliance (BSA) have signed a memorandum of understanding and mutual collaboration to fight piracy. BSA works to protect author rights and therefore has an interest to be active in the campaign against piracy.

BSA will certain cover costs for the National Algerian Office implementing intellectual property rights. According to the agreements, this is only a first step to reverse the parlous intellectual property rights in the country.

(source: Menareport)

FRENCH GOVT AND MANDRAKE TO ROLL OUT LINUX ACROSS AFRICA

The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Mandrakesoft have announced a plan to provide a network of sixty public Internet access points throughout Africa. The project, known as Aden, plans to set up the access points as well as train instructors. The access points will be run using a version of Mandrakesoft's Linux distribution.

Mandrakesoft announced that "Aden's aim is to foster the development and use of Information and Communication Technologies in Africa through the creation of a network of public Internet access points. The general aim is to create favorable conditions for the exchange of ideas and skills and encourage inter-cultural dialogue."

"To attain its goal an easy-to-use, multi-lingual and adaptable software solution was needed. The open source Aden - Mandrakelinux pack has been designed with those very constraints in mind."

The Aden-Mandrakelinux pack is built around a version of Mandrakelinux customised for use in a access point environment and is meant to be just as easy to set up and administer as to use. The pack will evolve according to feedback from field-workers, administrators and users. The Aden website will centralise those reports and Mandrakesoft will analyse them.

"Mandrakesoft is of course very proud to be part of Aden", said Francois Bancilhon, Mandrakesoft CEO. "It's in everyone's interest to see modern communication technologies spread to every part of the world. To put our skills at the service of that cause is only natural. And there's one very interesting thing going one here - that's how Linux and free software in general are adaptive. They're used in environments as different as that of a large commercial bank in Singapore and a cybercafe in Burkina-Faso. Free software is becoming the lingua franca of the world information society."

The African instructors, coming from 13 English, French and Portuguese-speaking countries, will help set up the Aden access points starting later this year. They will be the first to discover and test the Aden pack in November in Yaounde, Cameroon. The pack will then be available as a free download from Mandrakelinux and Aden websites.

(SOURCE: Tectonic News)

ICOZA AND SANGONET LAUNMCH NGO.ZA TO PROMOTE ICT USE IN SA NGO SECTOR

The Southern African NGO Network (SANGONeT) and ICOZA launched a new joint venture, called NGO.ZA, last week in Johannesburg.

Jay Naidoo, former Minister of Communications, and Chairperson of the J&J Group, was the keynote speaker at the launch of NGO.ZA. ICOZA is part of the J&J Group.

The overall aim of NGO.ZA is to meet and respond to the South African NGO sector's connectivity, hardware and e-business infrastructure requirements, and as a result, transform the ICT usage, capacity and infrastructure levels of the sector.

In view of the fast-changing nature of ICT products and services and the growing ICT awareness and requirements of the South African NGO sector, SANGONeT conceptualised this new initiative aimed at providing the NGO sector with a wide range of affordable ICT solutions.

SANGONeT has been at the forefront of providing information communication technology (ICT) services to the South African NGO sector since its inception in 1987. It is still one of very few NGOs in Africa involved in the ICT field and continues to serve civil society with a wide range of ICT products and services.

ICOZA is South Africa's first independently empowered Tier 1 Internet service provider (ISP). It offers a complete range of Internet and value-added services to support clients' connectivity and e- business infrastructure in a close collaboration between the J&J Group and South Africa's leading ISP, Internet Solutions.

The collective experience and expertise of SANGONeT and ICOZA will result in the provision of an extensive range of relevant and affordable ICT services through NGO.ZA to the NGO sector throughout the country.

The following range of services will be offered through NGO.ZA:

- Connectivity - lease line, ADSL, ISDN and Dial-Up with free 24/7/365 telephonic technical support, virus protection and spam filtering;

- Hardware: a full range of computer hardware solutions;

- Outlook SMS: e-mail to SMS messaging enabling cost-effective communication;

- Hosting: a comprehensive web hosting service on dedicated servers;

- Vax/Fax Solutions: save on the cost of a fax machine and paper by sending and receiving faxes using e-mail.

This range of services will be expanded during the next few months in line with the ICT needs and requirements of the NGO sector and new developments in the ICT field.

Visit www.ngo.za for more information on the new NGO.ZA initiative and services.

KENYAN ICT SECTOR SEEKS SPECIAL REGULATORY STATUS TO CUT RED TAPE

Kenya's Information and Communication Technology sector is seeking a special status to enable it attract more investors.Last week, Information minister Raphael Tuju said only such a status could improve the regulatory environment in the industry. "We want to have something similar to that EPZ, so as to expedite the licensing and registration processes," said Tuju.

He said the move was driven by the need to reduce bureacreacy and other bottlenecks that continue to limit investment into the ICT sector. The Minister, however, indicated that the initiative would be driven by the private sector as the Government lacked the capacity to undertake such a task.He said discussions were underway with a number of private firms that have expressed interest in the project.

Investors within the Export Processing Zones are entitled to special incentives including tax holidays, duty free acquisition of inputs and speedy registration of firms.

Tuju proposed the creation of ICT Parks that will give investors in the telecommunications sub-sector direct access to the outside world in order to reduce current dependency on state-owned Telkom Kenya.

He was speaking in Nairobi after he officially opened a workshop on Universal Access to ICTs. The one-day consultative workshop marked the third and final phase of the univesal access study process that began in December 2003.The consultations aim to develop strategies that will give a larger fraction of the Kenyan population access ICT.

(SOURCE: East African Standard)

ECONET LOCAL PARTNERS GIVEN MORE TIME TO COMPLETE KENYA LICENSING FINANCE

Mobile service provider, Econet Wireless Kenya (EWK), has been granted 30 more days to complete payment of its license fee. Sammy Kirui, the Director General of the Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK), said Econet Wireless International (EWI) had paid its part of the deal amounting to USD15 million.

The extension, he said, was only meant to give EWI's local partners - Kenya National Federation of Cooperatives (KNFC), Corporate Africa and Rapsel Limited -- time to pay their USD12 million part of the fee. The total license fee is USD27 million (Sh2.16 billion). "The extension has been granted to enable the consortium meet its part of the deal," Kirui told Journalist at a workshop on "Universal Access to ICTs in Nairobi."

EWK, the company that won the bid for Kenya's third mobile service provider, is a joint venture between the South Africa-based Econet Wireless International and the local consortium.

Kirui said EWI had expressed readiness to acquire the local consortium's stake, should it fail to pay the USD12 million within the 30 days.

Signs of Econet Wireless Kenya's failure to beat the October 18 deadline as laid down by CCK were evident in late August when Econet Wireless International's major financier, Allied Technologies Limited - Altech - withdrew its support for the deal. The South African Telco-investment institution cited unclear telecommunication policies in Kenya and unfavorable investment climate within the industry. The financier had earlier this year committed itself to pumping in some Sh5.3 billion in Econet Wireless International (EWI).

(SOURCE: All Africa)

OLD MUTUAL UNIT, TATA IN LINE FOR WAREHOUSED 26% STAKE IN SA'S SNO

  Three bidders have been selected as potential buyers of a 26% stake in the second network operator , including Old Mutual Asset Managers and India's Tata Africa Holdings. A third unnamed group has also qualified to compete for the controlling stake, said Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe Casaburri last week. However, it must be a weighty contender to have met the required R5bn balance sheet and five years' experience in the telecommunication sector.

The winner will have its work cut out in quelling internal squabbles among the second operator's existing stakeholders, Eskom Enterprises, Transtel, Nexus, CommuniTel and Two Consortium.

Nexus, with 19%, is threatening legal action to challenge the minister's decision to include Two Consortium and CommuniTel, since they were both initially rejected as substandard. On October 26 Nexus will apply for an interdict to halt the licensing process if there is no agreement on the shareholding structure.

Since the second network operator will probably invest between R3,5bn- R5bn in the business, 26% should be worth between R1bn- R1,5bn.

The news could finally see government getting the foreign direct investor it has long been seeking, since Tata Africa is an offshoot of the Indian conglomerate Tata Holdings, which owns 80 companies in various sectors, including telecommunications.

Tata would also give the operator political links in India, as it is bidding alongside VSNL, a telecommunication company 26% owned by the Indian government. VSNL is listed in India and in New York, with Tata holding 45% of its shares.

The head of Tata Africa, Raman Dhawan, said he would comment on why Tata wanted to control the second network operator "when the time is right".

In SA, Tata Africa owns a stake in the technology company Consilience. Consilience is also part owned by the J&J Group, set up by former communications minister Jay Naidoo. Old Mutual owns 25% of J&J, and is now competing against Tata for a stake in the second network operator.

(SOURCE: Business Day)

LIBERIAN GOVT FREEZES ASSETS OF TWO FORMER GOVT INVESTORS IN LONESTAR

The former Chairman of the National Patriotic Party (NPP), Cyril Allen says the National Transitional Government of Liberia (NTGL) has violated the Comprehensive Peace Agreement by freezing the assets of two former officials of government invested in the LoneStar Communications Corporation.

Allen said such a violation of the CPA is formula for disaster, because the transitional government is mandated to do everything aimed at bringing peace to the country.

He said the freezing of individual's assets at this time is counter-productive to the peace process and undermines the role of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union(AU).

He said all this is happening because NTGL Chairman Charles Gyude Bryant is under pressure from the United Nations to do so, saying " regrettably this was not done legally."

He said the issue about former president Charles Taylor, which has led to the freezing of assets is not for the NTGL to execute, but the duty of the next elected government, adding, "that is the position of the ECOWAS and AU".

Allen who is also under the UN travel ban, said he is not afraid of his assets being seized because he was born poor and has the ability to maximize his wealth. He challenged the Bryant administration to prove that he(Allen) is corrupt and accumulated his money by taking money from public coffers.

(source: The Inquirer)

IN BRIEF

- Lithalelanga Connections Holdings, a black-owned strategic investment enterprise, has acquired a 63% stake in Tecor Group, an IT solutions company with a R100 million annual turnover. Tecor, a previously white-owned company, specialises in LAN/WAN connectivity and does the bulk of its business in the public sector.

- Tiscali SA has reached an agreement to sell its cellular business to the Vodacom Service Provider Company. A statement issued last week says the cellular operations have been sold as a separate business unit and the deal is subject to Competition Commission approval.

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