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Africell Uganda, whose full legal name was Africell Uganda Limited (AUL), was an information and communication technology network company in
Uganda
}), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...
.
It was the third-largest telecommunications company in the country, by customer numbers.
However, the company closed all its businesses in Uganda in 2021 based on a careful assessment of the long-term commercial outlook for the business.
Location
The headquarters and main office of AUL were located in the Africell Office Building, at 28–30 Clement Hill Road, on
Nakasero Hill in the
Central Division of
Kampala
Kampala (, ) is the capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,680,000 and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kawempe Division, Makindye Division, Nakawa Division, and Ruba ...
, the capital and largest city in the country.
The coordinates of the company headquarters are 0°19'09.0"N, 32°35'24.0"E (Latitude:0.319169; Longitude:32.589992).
History
Africell Uganda was established in May 2014, when
Africell
Africell Group is a mobile technology company providing voice, messaging, data, mobile money and other integrated telecoms services to over 16 million subscribers across Africa.
Company overview
Africell was founded in 2001. It has US ownershi ...
acquired the majority stake that
Orange Telecom owned in its Uganda cellular network.
Africell paid $12 million for that stake, inheriting an estimated 1,000,000 subscribers.
In November 2014, the Group Chairman and CEO announced plans to invest US$150 million in the next five years, to upgrade the Africell network in Uganda.
Subscribers
In 2014, the network subscribers in Uganda were estimated at one million.
As of September 2018, its subscriber customer numbers had risen to 2.1 million.
In April 2020, the company's website gives the number of subscribers as over 3,000,000.
The table below illustrates the progressive customer growth for the company.
Ownership
The table below summarizes the shareholding in the business.
Operations
In 2018,
Africell Holdings, the parent company of Africell Uganda, secured a loan of US$100 million from the
Overseas Private Investment Corporation
The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) was the United States Government's Development finance institution until it merged with the Development Credit Authority (DCA) of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID ...
(OPIC), to expand operations in Uganda and the
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...
. Africell Holdings maintains subsidiaries in the
Gambia,
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ...
, DR Congo and Uganda.
As of January 2015, Africell Uganda maintained coverage in the majority of Uganda's geographical area.
Closure and exit from Uganda
In September 2021 the company announced that it would close business and exit the country, 7 October 2021. At the time of its closure, the Telcom had an estimated 3 million subscribers, accounting for about four percent(4%) market share.
See also
*
Communications in Uganda
There are a number of systems of communication in Uganda, including a system of telephony, radio and television broadcasts, internet, mail, and several newspapers. The use of phones and the internet in Uganda has rapidly increased in the last few y ...
*
List of mobile network operators in Uganda
This is a list of mobile network operators in Uganda:
* MTN Uganda
* Airtel Uganda
* Uganda Telecommunications Corporation Limited, UTel
* Smile Uganda Telecom, Smile Telecom
* Lycamobile Uganda.
* Roke Telkom (Uganda), Roke Telkom Uganda
Note: ...
References
External links
Website of Africell UgandaAfricell Contacts
{{coord, 00, 19, 09, N, 32, 35, 24, E, display=title
Telecommunications companies established in 2014
Kampala District
Telecommunications companies of Uganda
2014 establishments in Uganda