Two months before the year comes to an end, MTN Rwanda has already utilized, by 100 percent the budget that it had designated for improving the operations for the year 2009.

The first telecom company in the country, had this year earmarked an investment worth $100 million for its operations in a bid to improve service delivery and grow the company.

According to Richard Tusabe MTN’s Chief Finance Officer, all the funds have been put use and the company would have wanted to invest more had it not been for the lack of liquidity during the year.

"There has been huge hindrances this year like the unwillingness for the banks to loan money to the public hence borrowing some from abroad,” said Tusabe.

The largest telecom operator in the country by the size of its market raised 50 percent of the budget from its own sources while the remaining 50 percent was borrowed locally and from abroad.

MTN $18 million from  local Banks.
Through vendor financing jointly with Ericson Company, MTN acquired $30 million from KfW IPEX bank GmbH from Germany.

Both loans consisting of short and long term will be paid on a five year basis with a 15 percent and 3 percent interest rate.

"Our priority areas of investment included the growth of the company which accounted for 70 percent of the total funds,” added Tusabe.

The other area of priority was the innovation to improve the network and penetrate deep in the rural areas this accounted for 11 percent.

MTN also boasts of the widest network coverage of about 95 percent country wide.

However, with industry penetration still at a paltry 19 percent, there is still a lot to be done from the companies if they are to achieve the Rwanda Utility and Regulatory Authority (RURA) obligation of 6 million subscribers by 2012.

 Last year the Nyarutarama based company invested $40 million and it projects to invest less than $50 million for next year.

The reduction for next year’s budget is attributed to the huge investment that has been done this year in beefing up the network.  

Ends