Tanzanian authorities have charged the managing director of
Vodacom Tanzania and other telecom executives with economic crimes. Egyptian
Hisham Hendi and other telecom executives “intentionally and wilfully organized
a criminal racket, which caused the government … to suffer a pecuniary loss”
of more than $2.55 million, said documents seen by Reuters. The executives were
not allowed to enter a plea nor apply for bail, and were held in police custody
until the case comes up on April 17. Vodacom, a subsidiary of South Africa’s
Vodacom Group, is Tanzania’s leading telecom company by the number of mobile
subscribers, with about 32 percent of the country’s 40 million mobile subscribers,
ahead of Tigo Tanzania, a subsidiary of Sweden’s Millicom, and a local unit of
India’s Bharti Airtel. Vodacom’s biggest competitor, MTN, faced a number of
accusations in countries like Nigeria in recent years over regulatory and tax
breaches. Fortunately, the Tanzania operation is not as big for Vodacom as
Nigeria is to MTN, which may quell investor worries at group level. In 2018,
Tanzanian authorities levelled similar charges against executives at mobile
operators Halotel Tanzania and Zantel as part of President John Magufuli’s
crackdown on corruption.
SOURCES: BUSINESS
DAY LIVE
