Chad launches state telecoms company privatization

Chad has launched the privatization of its state-owned telecoms company, following a failed attempt in 2010 to sell a large portion of the group to the sovereign wealth fund of Libya.

The privatization of 80 percent in the Société des Télécommunications du Tchad (Sotel-Tchad) could offer investors a late chance to enter into the booming mobile phone market in Africa. Chad, an oil-rich country in central Africa, has a lower market penetration of mobile phones compared with its neighbors. Despite a difficult geography, telecommunications is an area of huge interest for foreign investors in Africa. The GSMA, an industry body representing telecommunications companies, estimates that sub-Saharan Africa has the fastest growth globally in mobile phone subscribers, with an 18 percent average annual growth rate over the past five years. The Chadian government has promised it would not grant any further telecommunications licenses beyond the three existing operators. Official estimates put mobile phone penetration in Chad at about 40 percent, roughly half the 80 percent more common in other countries in the region.