{UAH} UTL is on road to recovery, says minister Anite

UTL is on road to recovery, says minister Anite

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State Minister of Investment and Privatisation, Evelyn Anite 

In Summary

• In the next two months, UTL promises to provide cheap internet to Ugandans. They plan to work with West Indian Ocean Cable Company, in which UTL has 9.1 percent shares, to achieve this.
• In the near future, Mr Twebaze also proposes to float UTL shares on the stock exchange.
  The network availability was at 75 perecnt when the provisional administration began but now stands at 81 percent. The target is to make it 95 percent in the one and half months.

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By Our reporter

The provisional administration of the troubled Uganda Telecom Ltd (UTL), an organisation that was nearing collapse before government regained control of the previously publicly owned company in April 2017 seems to be paying off.

The State Minister of Investment and Privatisation, Evelyn Anite, who is supervising the process to bring UTL back on its foot and says it does not matter to her that her methods sometimes earn her criticism. Her eyes are set on winning.

Ms Anite trended on social media for most of last week after she proposed that all adult Ugandans should own UTL lines. Many criticised her for what they said was a ridiculous proposal but the minister is not moved. She is instead shocked that she is being lambasted for encouraging Ugandans to support their own telecom company.
By the time government took back UTL, the company had over Shs700 billion in debts accumulated by LAPGreen/Ucom, the Libyan majority shareholder then running it. Government had only 31 percent shares in the company.

WATCH:Minister Anite says UTL is on the road to recovery

After the government takeover, the Registrar General of the Uganda Registration Services Bureau, Mr Bemanya Twebaze was appointed the UTL provisional administrator on April 28, 2017. He was given a turnaround time of eight months. In the changes he implemented, the UTL managing Director, Chief Legal Counsel, Chief Finance Officer the Head of Audit were fired.
Mr Twebaze says the decisions taken are beginning to bare fruit because the company has so far managed to save Shs350 million. Twebaze hopes that this figure will rise to Shs500 million in another month.

However, a number of government agencies owe UTL in excess of Shs15 billion. Once recovered, the interim UTL managers plan to use this money to improve the network.
In the next two months, UTL promises to provide cheap internet to Ugandans. They plan to work with West Indian Ocean Cable Company, in which UTL has 9.1 percent shares, to achieve this.

In the near future, Mr Twebaze also proposes to float UTL shares on the stock exchange.
The network availability was at 75 perecnt when the provisional administration began but now stands at 81 percent. The target is to make it 95 percent in the one and half months.

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Gwokto La'Kitgum

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