Almot Maqolo, Staff Writer 
STATE-OWNED telecommunications company, TelOne says there has not been any meaningful progress regarding the clearance of its legacy debts despite the government’s commitment to facilitate debt warehousing to free up its balance sheet.
TelOne is owned by the government through Mutapa Investment Fund which also owns over a dozen of state-owned enterprises.
As of January 31, 2024, TelOne’s legacy loans amounted to US$390 million. The legacy loans were inherited from PTC during the restructuring of its predecessor company in 2000. The loans had been secured by PTC in the 1980s and 1990s to fund infrastructure projects.
“We are still pursuing engagements with Ministry of Finance and Investment Promotion who had in 2019 indicated that they will warehouse the debt, which is now at around US$400 million,” TelOne’s chief executive Lawrence Nkala told The Financial Gazette on the sidelines of commemorations of the 2024 world telecommunication and information society day.
“The engagements are still ongoing. The Debt Office has not come back to us after they requested documentation relating to the loans. So, we are still waiting for them.”
Other engagements have been with the Parliament of Zimbabwe. This comes after Parliament also requested submission of the loan details to ensure that TelOne is capacitated and able to attract private capital.
“We also want to update in terms of payables or receivables that TelOne is expecting out of government. Just before the currency change, TelOne was owed ZW$286 billion by the government and that money is still outstanding and it is grossly incapacitating the business to have sufficient working capital to pay our service providers, pay our staff and also do a small expansion of our network that we have undertaken from our resources,” Nkala said.
“We are still hopeful that there are now currency changes. They have to work on the accounts and also change systems from ZWL to ZiG and they will be able to give us an update in terms of when they will be able to settle.
“So, before the transition, they indicated that they would pay us 50 percent of what is owed. But now everything is at a standstill. So, no progress again,” Nkala added.
TelOne has invested an average of US$10 million annually in the last three years to improve its network.
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