Telone calls for investors

Telone, Zimbabwes major telecommunications and fiber provider is calling for investors to provide public and private partnership as well as finance injection.
Speaking on Thursday on the onset of a media tour of their operations in Harare, Bulawayo and Esigodini the Telone boss, Eng Lawrence Nkala highlighted the need for financial injection in order to realise their intended turnover which requires 250million United States dollars.
Late last year in an interview with ITWeb, Nkala highlighted that the company invested 2.4 million into broadband network upgrade and there is need for more revenue to fully develop its metro network.
The Telco is in need of a cash flow of USD250 million to position itself as the modern communications provider of choice.
“ We have tried to upgrade our broadband network and we have many other projects that are in pipeline and we need an investment of about USD 250million for them to come full capacity,”
“We call for private partnership and investment from both the local and international community to help us achieve our turn around,” he said
Telone has been facing financial constraints some from the rise of inflation which is affecting how they sell their products as well as high debts from government which adds up to about ZWE$184 billion as at the first of January 2023 aswell as legacy loans that where inherited from PTC.
Most of this financial issue have caused investors to desists from partnering and sponsoring their projects as they fear the companies abitility to repay.As of last year their balance sheet showed approximately 393million in overdue legacy loans.
Nkala however hopes that the development by government of placing Telone under the Mutapa Investment will increase its attractiveness to investors aswell as help in releaving their financial burden.
The Mutapa Investment Fund is Zimbabwe’s more or less equivalency to the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF). It, like other SWFs, is a state-owned investment fund that invests in a range of assets