In the wake of extreme and damaging United Nations (UN) sanctions, said to be hurting the company's operations, LAP Green Networks has now sought the expertise of an international lawyer to push for the lifting of the sanctions, which were imposed early this year.
The sanctions were imposed at the height of the Libyan civil war, which led to the fall of the country's president, Muammar Gaddafi.
LAP Green Networks is now in default with some creditors and its assets have been frozen by a number of countries as they move to enforce the sanctions.
The sanctions have been hurting the company's operations and the expansion of its network, as no bank is allowed to fund the operations of the company in the form of loans.
“We have engaged an international lawyer to help us push for the lifting of the sanctions that have been hurting the operations of the network,” says Wafik Alshater, LAP Green Networks' chairman and CEO, in a statement last week.
The company operates in six African countries, including Zambia, Ivory Coast, Togo and Sierra Leone. Alshater was appointed last month by Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) to take stock of LAP Green Networks and to push the company's expansion programme.
LAP Green Networks operates in Zambia as Zambia Telecommunications Company (Zamtel), after buying 75% of the shares in the company at a cost of $257 million last year. The remaining shares are still held by the Zambian government.
Due to the sanctions, the previous Zambian government had been financing the operations of the company through its 25% stake.
However, the previous administration, through then vice-president George Kunda, told Zambian lawmakers that it only had enough money to run the company up to the end of December.
Last week, LAP Green Networks revealed for the first time that it has invested more than $170 million in the expansion of the company's network capacity and coverage.
The expansion programme is said to have focused mainly on the extension of network capacity and coverage, enabling Zamtel to compete favourably with other operators in the country.
LAP Green Networks also said the investment in Zamtel has resulted in the “growing of market share from 3.5% at the time of the takeover (July 2010), to 10.5% of the fixed broadband customers”.
However, the Zamtel sale is being probed for “fraud and irregularities” by Zambian president Michael Sata. The report by a commission of inquiry, appointed to look into the sale of the company, established last month that the transaction was illegal and fraudulent.
Sata is still waiting for Cabinet to decide on whether to allow the company to continue operating, or to reverse the sale.
But one thing is clear - LAP Green Networks has managed to improve its operations after being on the verge of closing when the Zambian government failed to recapitalise it.
The company is currently expanding, with ongoing 2.5G and 3G network rollouts, while the New Generation Network has already been installed.
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