New telco banks on data services

Dar es Salaam. State-owned Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited (TTCL), which will soon be rebranded to Tanzania Telecommunications Corporation (TTC), is banking on data and mobile money to drive revenues as it moves to become a profitable entity, starting next year.

Currently, the firm generates 90 per cent of its profit from data services due to a lower cost and improved efficiency compared with other mobile operators in the country.

According to the firm’s chief executive officer, Mr Waziri Kindamba, they are optimistic on the potential of TTLC Pesa, their ‘newborn’ service, whose use is growing fast due to the rapid technological development of mobile money services in the country.

Mr Kindamba took the media through the new Tanzania Telecommunications Corporation Act 2017, which was endorsed by Parliament on November 14, this year.

“Services provided by the firm, including mobile data, have been supervised efficiently to ensure that their consumption boosts profits,” he stressed.

Through data services TTCL project to geat a profit of between Sh7 billion and Sh8 billion during the next financial year after three years of incurring losses.

He assured partners that all the contracts entered into with suppliers and contractors will be respected despite the change in mode of operation. Seeking to assure the public, he said despite changing from a limited company to a corporation, the telecom’s brand would remain intact and jobs would be safe.

Mr Kindamba called on those who owed TTCL to honour their financial obligations as agreed.

“I received a number of calls and text massages from people wanting to know the fate of the firm. Others think that this is the end…let me be clear; the company will now be owned 100 per cent by Tanzanians,” he explained.

The TTCL chief added that the telecom was waiting for the approval of President John Magufuli before it could start implementing huge investments in order to compete with other communication companies.

Meanwhile, the head of Finance department, Mr David Kalay, reassured creditors that all the dues that the company owed them would be cleared.

The government recently bought the 35 per cent stake that Indian company Bharti Airtel initially held in TTCL at Sh14.7 billion, which increased the state’s ownership of the firm to 100 per cent shares.