By Matt Smith
DUBAI, June 19 (Reuters) – Sudan’s foreign currency shortage
and a huge variation in official and de facto exchange rates are
delaying equipment purchases and payments by telecoms operators,
hitting a key industry for the struggling economy, executives
told Reuters.
Higher taxes and mounting competition are also posing
challenges for the African country’s three major telecoms
players as they battle to tap the potential of a relatively
underpenetrated market.
Sudan lost three-quarters of its oil output when South Sudan
became independent in July, ending its main source of state
revenue and foreign currency.
That made the telecoms sector even more critical to the
wider economy and it now accounts for about 12 percent of gross
domestic product, according to No.1 operator Zain Sudan, a unit
of Kuwait’s Zain.
Yet operators are struggling to buy hard currency from the
government.
“The availability of foreign currency is a big issue for
telecoms companies because we depend on imported services and
equipment,” Zain Sudan chief executive Elfatih Erwa told
Reuters.
He said Zain had sometimes delayed payments to foreign
suppliers, but these were still delivering on schedule. Ericsson
and Huawei are Zain’s main suppliers.
State-owned Sudatel has faced similar problems.
Continued…
