Govt invests Shs300b in UTL rebrand  

Government has committed Shs300b to kick-start operations of Uganda Telecommunication Corporation Limited (UTCL). 

UTCL, which government unveiled on Wednesday, is a successor company of Uganda Telecom Limited (UTL), which has since been abandoned due to a high liability burden to form UTeL. 

Speaking at the rebrand in Kampala on Wednesday, Ms Evelyn Anite, the Investment state minister, said the new company is structured by the Ministry of Finance, which holds a 60 percent stake and ICT ministry with a 40 percent shareholding. 

The rebrand also presents a full return of government into the telecom business after a decade since UTL sunk into losses after the Libyan government, ravaged by war in 2011, failed to fulfil its part of required investment. 

The telecom will now have to square off with MTN and Airtel, two private telecoms, which control more than 90 percent of the market.  

ICT Minister Chris Baryomunsi, said the Shs300b is an initial investment with plans to attract other investors and partners, urging the now fully owned government telecom to compete and remain relevant with innovative products in the market. 

Mr Baryomunsi also noted that whereas UTL had suffered growth retardation, there were plans to provide the company with extra spectrum to move faster to 4G so as to compete favourably with the current telecom companies, which have already put in place infrastructure to move to 5G. 

On the other hand, Ms Anite rallied Ugandans to use the company’s services in what she said was, “... a new dawn to enrich our company because it’s our national pride”, noting that the company will succeed, brushing off any ideas that government couldn’t do business based on past experiences. 

Last year, Ms Anite had told Monitor that government had saved UTL, which had been under administration for about five years, noting that plans to liquidate the telecom had been thwarted by President Museveni, who she said had reasoned that the country needed a national telecom company. 

Ms Maggie Mukiibi Lutwama, UTeL chief operating officer, said the company would focus on efficiency considering the new innovations currently on the market.  It is not clear how many subscriber UTeL still holds on the now abandoned UTL network. 

Government telecoms

Finance Ministry Permanent Secretary Ramathan Ggoobi, said across the globe, it was government owned telecoms driving telecommunication services, urging the new company to “engender innovative ways of bringing back to life this company”. 

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