Angola has granted operational license to another telecommunications operator, Africell, becoming the fourth telecoms service provider in Africa’s second largest crude oil producing country.
The Lebansese based firms already has some foothold on the African continent with operations in the Gambia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone and Uganda.
Africell became the preferred bidder after the government of President Joao Lourenco cancelled the first choice, Telstar, on the grounds that the company failed to meet bidding requirements.
Angola has 14 million mobile users with two main service providers- namely Unitel and Movcel. These are private firms but the third and state run Angola Telecoms offers only fixed wired communication and internet services.
Angola is ranked 146 out of 180 countries on Transparency International’s corruption perceptions index.