Ministry of Technology and Science Permanent Secretary Dr. Brilliant Habeenzu has disclosed that government does not intend to privatise Zamtel.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times-ZBT, Habeenzu said the company has continued to make losses but the ministry is working to change the narrative noting that government has plans to make entities such as Zamtel profit making so they can be self-sustaining.
Habeenzu explained that Zamtel currently needs an injection of about $260 million for recapitalization adding that government is not happy with the way the company is operating.
“They are telling me that it is because they are in areas which are underserved and unserved areas where it is not profitable but they have continued to be there because they are a government entity and they have to serve those areas”, he said.
The Permanent Secretary however mentioned that government has not prescribed any solutions so far but stressed that all the rumors going round that government has privatised Zamtel are false.
“We have not prescribed any solutions so far as government. Those rumors that are going round to say government has decided to privatise Zamtel are not true, what has then been decided is that we are going to find a solution together with the private sector through the Public Private Dialogue Forum (PPDF)”, he said.
He noted that Zamtel is unable to help drive the digital transformation agenda, which needs a minimum of 746 towers in order to cover 96% of the country, which includes data.
Habeenzu added that under the digital transformation strategy, government intends to put as many services as possible online so that efficiency can be improved as well as effective service delivery, which as a result will see growth in the economy.
