Spilling the Airtel beans...

KATARE MBASHIRU

TTCL Chief Executive Officer, Waziri Kindamba

The drama has been traced to a September 2005 board meeting

FRESH details have emerged over the controversial ownership of Airtel Tanzania Limited, with the Tanzania Telecommunication Company Limited (TTCL), revealing how an official within the TTCL board failed Tanzanians.

In what apps to be a shocking revelation, despite a joint venture between Celtel International, a company that is now trading as Airtel, took all shares of TTCL, a move that crippled operations of the state-owned telecom company.

Barely a day after President John Magufuli revealed that the deal was dubious and unfair, directing the Finance and Planning minister to investigate it, the TTCL Board and Management held a press conference in Dar es Salaam to spill the beans.

According to TTCL board chairman, Omar Nundu, it all began on September 5, 2005, a date he termed as dramatic when a series of unprecedented events unfolded. On that fateful date, a person whose identity he fell short of revealing, who initially, owned one per cent share that he was given by a person he named as David Damford, was simultaneously a TTCL and Celtel board member.

On that date, the board that had nine members conducted a meeting attended by only five of them. The meeting was chaired by a man whose name he said he could not reveal.“That person, who led the meeting, decided to relinquish the one per cent share to TTCL, which then owned 100 per cent shares,’’ he said.

On the same day, TTCL shares were taken by the board and given to other individuals, and one person was given the shares in murky circumstances, under which the government, through the Treasury Registrar (TR), had 65 per cent shares and an investor had 35 per cent.

In a dramatic turn of events, it turned out that instead of TR, who was the majority shareholder, an investor, Celtel, was given 60 per cent shares and TR remained with 40 per cent, consequently becoming a minority shareholder.

At that time, Celtel International had four Tanzanians and one foreigner as owners of the company which later changed the name to Zain and subsequently Airtel. Speaking in Dodoma on Wednesday, Dr Magufuli accused some officials of ‘dirty games’ of changing/selling the shares at ‘throw away’ prices, at the expense of national interests.

“The minister for finance and planning should make follow up on this issue... I want you to make sure this deal is sorted out,” the President emphatically remarked. Dr Magufuli said that based on a report now under his custody, the telecom firm that once traded as Celtel Tanzania was fully owned by TTCL, only that its shares were changed dubiously through unfair deals.

Yesterday, TTCL Chief Executive Officer, Waziri Kindamba came out strongly that it was high time Airtel Tanzania Limited surrendered the company to TTCL. “That company, (Airtel) was obtained illegally and in that case there is no any way whatsoever that it can operate legally in the country,” he said.

Mr Kindamba stated categorically that there were no grudges between the government and Airtel Tanzania Limited, but TTCL was applying diplomatic measures to have sole ownership of Airtel. In early August 2005, Celtel Tanzania and TTCL were legally separated, allowing each to administer its own financial and business operations.

In this new (duly signed) agreement between the Tanzanian Government and Celtel Tanzania, TTCL’s shareholding structure remained unchanged, with the government of Tanzania holding 65 per cent and Celtel International the remaining 35 per cent.

Celtel Tanzania’s structure was subsequently changed, to abide by the government’s decision to sell a 25 per cent stake to Celtel International for $28 million.