The Lebanese company was selected in March to submit a bid after being the only company to formalize an application for the tender.
The Government, through the inter-ministerial working group, “considering the observations raised by the evaluation committee in the award report”, informed that “the candidacy of the company Africell Global Holding Ltd is the winner of the public tender for the award of the 4. º Unified Global Title (TGU) for the provision of public electronic communications services ”.
The application phase took place between September 30, 2019 and January 22, 2020, in which three companies (Africell, MTN of South Africa and BAI Investimentos de Angola) acquired parts of the tender.
The subsequent phase, of presenting the technical and financial proposal of the only candidate, took place from March 2 to May 4, 2020.
“The evaluation committee concluded that Africell's proposal responded satisfactorily to the requirements of the parts of the procedure, as well as to the interests of the State, and is expected to bring transversal benefits to all economic sectors in the country, as well as to the population of generally ”, the statement said.
The note added that the proposal will also “be a relevant factor for international projection and for the continuous capture of relevant foreign direct investments for Angola”.
After the conclusion of the negotiation and provision of the final terms established, Africell will be granted the TGU license, to operate in the national territory and will enter into the respective concession contract with the Angolan Communications Institute (Inacom).
Africell is an international operator, with 18 years of activity in the telecommunications sector, providing mobile, Internet, subscription television and 'mobile money' services to more than 12 million customers.
The company is already present in four African countries: The Gambia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone and Uganda.
Angola currently has three operators, with Unitel leading the market, with around 80 percent, ahead of Movicel, with about 20 percent, and Angola Telecom (state-owned company in the process of privatization) with a position residual.
The first public tender to award the license to a new operator, in which the Angolan Telstar won, was involved in a controversy and was canceled because the company "did not present operating results for the last three years, as required by the specifications", according to a presidential decree published on April 18, 2019.
