Zain to double investments in Africa

Story: Boahene Asamoah, back from Nairobi, Kenya

DR Saad Al Barrak, the Group Chief Executive Officer of Zain, the new owners of Westel and international mobile telecommunications company operating in the Middle East and Africa, has said the company plans to double its investments in Africa and double its customer base throughout its operations.
He said the company had, over the past few years, invested over $10 billion in its operations in Africa, adding that “we will continue to invest more in our operations across Africa”.
Speaking at a news conference which brought together some international media across Europe, Africa and the Middle East, Dr Barrak said as part of its vision, the company hoped to attract 110 million customers by 2011.
Zain, which operates in 14 other African countries, was previously known as Celtel.
He said the company had undertaken a strategy to re-brand its global business, adding that “by re-branding to Zain, we are bringing together our African and Middle East operations under a single, strong and unique identity”.
He said the re-branding was consistent with the strategic vision of the company to become a leading global brand in the next few years.
The Zain Group, which has operations in 22 countries in the world, including 14 operations in Africa, with Ghana as its new destination, has over 50 million customers throughout its operations.
Dr Barrak described the branding as a significant milestone in the history of the company from the company’s humble beginnings.
He said the company had, over the past few years, evolved from a regional company to become an international brand.
The group CEO said it had expanded its operations and now had operations in Africa and the Middle East, with Ghana and Saudi Arabia being the new subsidiaries of the group, adding that “we will long for opportunities to extend our brand and services”.
Dr Barrak stated that the company presently had a consolidated revenue of about $3.488 billion, with net income of $551 million.
“For us to become a global company, we need to have one identity that reflects our unique direction and reflects our values,” he said.
He explained that the Zain concept of one network was to create a seamless network across its operations with the offering of one local tariff, thereby abolishing the high cost of roaming charges.
Dr Barrak stated that its brand would bring about performance and place the company as the number one mobile company in Africa and among the top 10 global brands in the world.
Zain presently is the number one player in 14 out of 20 of its active operations in Africa and the Middle East.
He stated that it was part of the strategy of the company to list part of its operations on the local stock markets and mentioned, for instance, that the Ghana operations planned to list part of its shares on the Ghana Stock Market within two years.
He added that the group hoped to list shares on some international stock markets, adding that its initial public offer in Zambia achieved greater success.
Dr Barrak stated THAT the company had embarked on a number of sustainable projects under its corporate social responsibility to reach out to help deprived communities across Africa.
He mentioned its projects in Dertu in the northern part of Kenya where it had provided affordable handsets and installed a network service to help the farmers to do business.
Again, he mentioned the low-cost, affordable handset projects in Uganda to help the fishing communities along Lake Victoria to carry out their activities with low cost phones.