State-owned fixed telecommunications giant, TelOne, has attributed its failure to meet set targets to government’s unpaid debts. The government owes TelOne $93 million which constitutes 62% of total debt, now approaching $100 million.
TelOne Managing Director, Chipo Mtasa, told TelOne’s annual meeting this week delayed settlement of debts continued to negatively affect the telecoms company. She said:
Settlement of critical local creditors of $98 million has been affected by late settlement of what is owed to us. Local creditors, namely Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Revenue Authority, local interconnection partners and the Pension Fund are collectively owed $93 million.
Delayed settlement by debtors continues to have a negative impact on the company’s ability to settle critical statutory and contractual obligations.
Mtasa revealed that TelOne has as a result started implementing an array of measures to recover the outstanding amounts and or to avoid future bad debts. She added:
To this end we have put in place different strategies for debt collection including black listing or litigation where necessary. This has resulted in a 26 percent increase in collections of at least $64 million between January and May this year.
TelOne is also carrying legacy loans inherited from Post and Telecommunications Corporation (PTC) when it was disaggregated in 2000. Resultantly, TelOne owes a cumulative US$383 million to a number of external lenders including Eksportfinas of Norway (US$13,8 million); Eximbank of Japan (Sumitomo II) (US$9,5 million); BNP of France (US$36,2 million); Tunisia-based African Development Bank (US$89,9 million) and KFW 11A of Germany (US$12,6 million).
More: The Herald
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