[kictanet] Kenya in dilemma over transfer of Teams shares to private investors

[John Walubengo]

Alex, I did not smell any fish on this deal but I did smell
a small rat - and so I had floated the four questions below
that were so ably answered by Dr. Ndemo.  

However, Question 4 answer was not quite clear to me and
may linger on...
walu.
~~~~~
1. Will the cable be open for direct connectivity (at the
 source in MSA) to other future telco players?
Ans: Yes

2. Will the price of connecting to the international fiber
be driven by profit-motives or will it be based on the
'cost-of-operating-the-fiber' basis.

Ans: Connection at MSA will be on cost-recovery basis but
Profit element will occur at the retail end of the
connection.

3. What modalities exist for future investors who may wish 
to own part of the fiber maybe 2 or 5years after the cable
is operational- or will this thing be a closed-club to the
original financiers once the cable becomes operational? 

Ans: Govt would dilute or divest their shares to new
interested investors hence not a 'closed-shop'.

4. What are the steps involved in transparently
transferring this public resource into private sector?
Ans: Did not quite get a straight answer on this one as
copied verbatim below:
A: You cannot force anyone to buy into Teams.  There are
clear  deadlines by the financial arranger for making
commitments.  The Standard  Chatered Bank were procured to
make financial arrangements for the cable.   Although
sometimes Media misses the point here and there, it has
done a  wonderful job keeping us on our toes.

walu.

-- Alex Gakuru <alex.gakuru at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Smell something fishy....
> 
> <snip>
> The history of the opening up of the
> telecommunications sector is littered with cases of
> manipulation of privatisation to allow insiders and
> connected operatives to acquire shares they have not
> paid for. To date, the true owners of an entity by the
> name Mobitelea Ventures Ltd that indirectly owns a 10
> per cent stake in the country’s first ever GSM mobile
> phone operator, Safaricom Ltd, remains unknown. The
> investor was procured under the old and opaque
> privatisation regime.
> 
> In the case of Teams, the government last year
> procured 12 investors who will be allotted shares when
> the cable goes into operation. Although most of the
> companies allotted shares are well-known
> telecommunication companies, a number are nevertheless
> names that don’t resonate.
>


      ____________________________________________________________________________________
Looking for last minute shopping deals?  
Find them fast with Yahoo! Search.  http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping