Embattled Libyan sub-Saharan African mobile operator, LAP Green Networks has, for the first time since the reported irregularities in the buying of Zamtel, revealed it has invested $170 million in the expansion of the company's network capacity and coverage.
In a statement issued on Monday, 28 November, seen as a plea for lenience to avert the pending decision to reverse the sale of Zamtel by the new Zambian government, LAP said it has, since July 2010, embarked on an aggressive investment programme worth nearly $170 million.
The statement said the programme focused on the expansion of network capacity and coverage, and that Zamtel has since been able to compete favourably with other operators in the country.
Zamtel's statement comes only a week after George Kunda, who was VP at the time the company was being sold, warned that if the new government reversed the sale, Zambia risks losing investor confidence.
Kunda said no operator would be willing to invest in Zambia because the security of the company's investment will not be guaranteed.
Kunda's law firm, George Kunda and Company, was reported last week by the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) as having received more than $36 000 from LAP Green Networks in unexplained circumstances.
LAP Green said, however, that its investment in Zamtel has resulted in the “growing of market share from 3.5% at the time of the takeover, to 10.5% of fixed broadband customers”.
Zamtel's sale is being probed for “fraud and irregularities” by Zambian president Michael Sata. The report by the commission of inquiry appointed to investigate the sale established that the transaction was illegal and fraudulent.
Sata is still waiting for Cabinet to make a final decision on whether to allow the company to continue operating in Zambia, or to reverse the sale.
But LAP Green claims it has managed to cut losses reported for four years by Zamtel before it bought the 75% stake in the company.
The losses, LAP Green said, were largely due to bureaucracy issues and underperformance.
The previous government claimed it sold Zamtel in order to protect the company from closing after failing to recapitalise it.
However, the team that probed the sale of Zamtel, led by Zambia's justice minister, Sebastian Zulu, said it is not confident that LAP Green Networks has the ability to run Zamtel, Zambia's only total solution service provider, given the past failures of LAP Green Networks in Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast.
The report said: “It is clear from the above (Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast) that in its short three-year history, LAP Green Networks has proved to be inept and incompetent to run the telecommunication company.”
Zamtel currently employs 750 workers, down from more than 3 000 before the sale of the company.
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