The giant telecom service provider Airtel Uganda is set to list 20 per cent of its shares on Uganda Securities Exchange (USE), Eagle Online has learnt.
The intention to list part of its shares has been confirmed by Manoj Murali, the Managing Director of Airtel Uganda on the sidelines of unveiling a campaign to award excelling users of technology to make a difference in the lives of people.
“It is true we will be listing 20 per cent of our shares on Uganda Securities Exchange (USE) by December 2022,” Murali said.
Currently, the government of Uganda is urging telecom operators to list a fifth of their shares on the USE to allow locals to benefit from the sector’s profits.
Last year, MTN Uganda floated 20 per cent of its shares to Ugandans and East Africans from Tanzania, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and South Sudan. The 20 per cent transited into over 4.4 million shares.
Each share was sold at Shs 200 and the potential shareholders were required to pay a minimum of Shs 100,000 for them to get 500 shares in the telecom company. MTN International owned 96% of the shares in Uganda but now owns 76 per cent of the company, and the other 4 per cent belong to Mr. Charles Mbiire.
Airtel entered the Uganda Market on June 8, 2010 when Bharti Airtel acquired 16 Zain Africa operations.
In 2013, Airtel fully acquired Warid Telecom Uganda in the first ever in-country acquisition in the telecommunications sector. With this, Airtel further consolidated its position as the second largest mobile operator in Uganda with a combined customer base of over 7.4 million and market share of over 39 per cent cementing its position as the second mobile telephone network, behind market leader MTN Uganda.
In 2018, Airtel hit the 10 million customer mark. This milestone cemented Airtel’s position as the fastest growing telecom in Uganda. In January 2019, Airtel Uganda achieved 100 per cent 4G LTE across all its sites in Uganda, translating the national broadband policy into reality. The telecom owns in excess of 2,000 masts in Uganda, as of April 2020.
