Brokers at the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange. PHOTO | FILE
By TEA Special Correspondent
In Summary
Telecommunications companies have to complete the process of
listing their shares on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE) by close
of business Friday.
Works, Transport and Communications minister Makame Mbarawa has
ordered the telecom companies that are yet to complete the process of
listing shares at DSE to do so within three days.
Deadline
According to Prof Mbarawa’s statement, telecommunications
companies which were licensed before July 1 this year should abide by
the law to list their 25 per cent of shares at DSE before the end of
this month. Under the 2016 Electronic and Postal Communications Act
(Epca), December 31 is the deadline for the firms’ listing.
An amendment to a new finance Bill requires the eight operators to float 25 per cent of their shares on the bourse.
As of Wednesday this week, only Vodacom Tanzania and Tigo had prepared their prospectuses for listing on the DSE.
Airtel, Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited (TTCL), Zantel, Benson and Sasatel were yet to do so.
Revenue
Efforts to get comments from Airtel, TTCL and Zantel officials
failed. Companies licensed after July 1 this year have two years to
prepare themselves for listing.
Finance and Planning minister Philip Mpango told the National
Assembly that the companies’ listing on the bourse would “help the
government trace the exact revenue generated by the firms as well as
enable Tanzanians to hold shares”.
He denied that the Bill was a policy reversal, saying it merely
enforced the Epoca of 2010, which stipulated that foreign telecoms
companies to list locally.
Vodacom is the market leader though it has seen its subscription
market share dropping from 45 per cent in December 2007, 41 per cent in
December 2008, 39 per cent in December 2009 before dropping further to
32 per cent in December 2015, according to Tanzania Communications
Regulatory Authority figures.
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