MTN and Liquid Intelligent Technologies (LIT) are exposed to inflation and currency depreciation in their South Africa, Zimbabwe and Nigerian markets, said Moody’s Ratings, adding though that regional telecoms operators stood to benefit from booming population and increased uptake of mobile services.

South African telecoms groups have forayed into regional markets, including MTN and Vodacom, where they are also running broadband and setting up mobile money services to broaden revenues and earnings.

However, for operators like MTN, exposure to exchange rates mainly comes from translating results into its rand reporting currency and from the dollar indexation element on its tower leases, especially in Nigeria, said Moody’s senior analyst, Lisa Jaeger.

It is less exposed to a currency mismatch between earnings and debt because it has shifted debt from dollars into rand and naira over the past two to three years and continues to raise debt in local currency at its subsidiaries,” noted Jaeger and other analysts in a new report by Moody’s on the Sub Saharan African telecommunications sector.

On the other hand, LIT – the independent fibre network operator – earns around 75% of its revenue in local currencies such as the Zimbabwe Gold South African rand. Most of LIT’s customer contracts “do not include any price escalation mechanisms, exposing LIT to inflation and currency depreciation” risks.

LIT’s contracts, however, leaves some room for price increases to cover for this as they can be renegotiated periodically, usually on an annual basis while in some countries these have to be approved by the local regulator, adding some regulatory risks and volatility to earnings.

In the case of MTN, in the 18 months to June 2024, the operator’s financial performance suffered significantly from depreciation in Nigeria’s naira.

MTN’s “naira earnings became worth less” when translated into rand, significantly contributing to its 20% drop in group revenue over the half-year period to the end of June.

To offset currency depreciation, mobile network operators operating in volatile markets such as in the case of MTN are resorting to raising tariffs in line with inflation, which is usually correlated to depreciation.

LIT’s strategy to reduce exposure to currency depreciation comes in the form of matching its rand earnings with rand-denominated debt.

However, there remains a mismatch between revenue earned in other local African currencies and its dollar-denominated debt for around 45% of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (Ebitda) including Zimbabwe and around 20% of Ebitda when excluding Zimbabwe.

“Zimbabwe continues to experience high inflation and a weakening currency, even after the introduction of the new currency Zimbabwe gold (ZiG) in April 2024. Even though dollar availability has improved, there remain limitations on converting any cash generated in Zimbabwe into dollars and on moving it out of the country,” notes the Moody’s report on the regional telecoms sector.

Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has stated that the decision by Starlink to unilaterally review its subscription packages upwards did not receive its approval.

Reuben Muoka, director, Public Affairs of NCC, in a statement on Tuesday, said “the action of the company is in contravention of Sections 108 and 111 of the Nigerian Communications Act (NCA), 2003, and Starlink’s licence conditions regarding tariffs.”

The statement reads, “the decision by Starlink to unilaterally review its subscription packages upwards did not receive the approval of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

“The action of the company is in contravention of Sections 108 and 111 of the Nigerian Communications Act (NCA), 2003, and Starlink’s Licence Conditions regarding tariffs.

“The Commission commenced pre-enforcement action on the licensee on the 3rd of October, 2024.”

National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) is organizing a 3-day procurement in-house training for all procurement and other relevant officers in NASENI system -wide to acquaint them with best procurement operations and in line with global practices.

The training will take place at the NASENI Headquarters, beginning from Tuesday 8^th  to 10^th October, 2024, targeted at building the capacity of procurement officers, and other select staff from Accounts, Audit, legal, Media, Planning and other officers involved in procurement activities in NASENI System-wide.

The Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, NASENI, Mr. Khalil Suleiman Halilu will deliver the keynote address while Olusegun Omotola, Ag. Director General/CEO, Bureau of Public Procurement will declare the in-house training officially open.

The training amongst other things aims at ensuring that NASENI is doing the right thing and adhering to 2007 Procurement Act, Manual and other vital information that will enable the Agency to continue on the right track and to utilize the right information at every given time, as far as procurement matters are concerned.

Speaking on the upcoming training, the Director of Procurement, Dr. Mohammed A. Mohammed said that the training is based on NASENI needs and to enable officers meet up with changes in technology and practices which are global phenomenon, especially against the backdrop of on-going transformation in the NASENI system.

He said, “Things are changing, and you need to change with time, technology is changing globally, you need to build your capacity. This training is based on NASENI Needs on procurement which is slightly different from other sectors.

“Almost 75-80 per cent of NASENI activities is based on science and engineering, our method of procurement, is a little different, from the ministry of works, raw materials, etc.  Again, you must build your capacity to be able to cope, which is why we are having this training, to build capacity in line with NASENI needs and mandate.”

According to him, building capacity is a continuous exercise and procurement is all about law end to end, adding that the officers working in procurement must be trained from time to time to equip them with new trends.

He also noted that with the Standard Operation Procedure globally and the World Bank new version on procurement, NASENI cannot work differently, it must key into global practices. He stated that 95 per cent of the resource persons for this training are from the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) as NASENI has an agreement with it, to assist in building the capacity of procurement and relevant officers in NASENI system-wide.

Also speaking on the upcoming in-house procurement training, Mr. Adekoya Olatunji, BPP consultant, said, that “the In-house training that is coming up in NASENI is very good, it will enable the officers to adhere strictly to procurement Act. What NASENI is doing is very good, so that the officers will do what they need to do very well”.

Highlights on some of the topics of the training with the theme: “Building the Best Procurement Operations in NASENI System-Wide” includes, Effective Procurement Practices & PPA, 2007, Procurement Planning, Procurement Record Keeping Procedures, Contract Agreement and Implications amongst others.