MTN Uganda Gets US$100 m for Network Expansion

MTN Uganda has raised US$100 million in debt to fund the expansion of its network. Isaac Nsereko, chief marketing officer at MTN confirmed the development to the Reuters news agency.

Absa Capital, the investment banking arm of Absa Group was lead arranger of the  syndicated loan.

"We are using it to invest in the network, different sections of the network really," he told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Based on data from the Mobile World, the country's five current operators and their market shares are: MTN (41%); Zain (22%); Uganda Telecom (19%); Warid Telecom (17%) and Orange (2%). A sixth network, I-Tel launched its network last month.

Safaricom Plans to Borrow R 1.2 billion

Kenya's biggest mobile operator wants to borrow between up to R 1.2 billion. It has picked Barclays Capital, Absa Bank and Stanbic to arrange the issue.

Safaricom, which is partially held by Britain's Vodafone has had to contend with falling revenue per user as it has entered a price war with rivals such as France's Orange and Kuwait's Zain.

Barclays Bank Kenya has already launched a 5 billion shillings seven-year bond to support long-term lending.

Investors gave it 3 billion shillings in