Tanzania: Celtel now called ‘Zain’ in Tanzania

(SomaliNet) Celtel, one of the leading mobile telecommunication service operators in Africa and the Middle East, has acquired Zain as its new brand name.

Reports say although Celtel has re-branded its entire African operations to Zain, management vows would continue to support the education sector in Tanzania and elsewhere.

Zain will continue to support education because “they want to help people to have a wonderful life that they have planned to have,” Bashar Arafeh, the Chief Operating Officer for Zain East Africa Region-in Charge of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Madagascar said Friday.

In particular, Zain would continue to support artists in Africa further improve their talents in music and culture, he noted.

Zain Brand is wholly owned by Mobile Telecommunications Company KSC, which is listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange trading as Stock Ticker: ZAIN, with a market capitalisation of over USD 25.8bn as of June 30th 2008.

Zain is currently serving over 35 milion customers on the African continent, and has resolved to help the continent achieve Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Last year, Zain avers it donated millions of dollars worth of books and educational supplies to government owned schools in Africa.

Similarly, Zain has partnered with international establishments in bringing telephony to 400,000 people in remote areas of Africa and has many community projects across both continents.

Zain’s financial results for 2007 and the first quarter of 2008 were splendid, despite fierce competition in many markets it operates.

It crossed the 50 million customer milestone, as well as recording consolidated revenues of USD 3.488bn, an increase of 26 percent compared to the first quarter of 2007.

Zain was established in 1983 in Kuwait as the region?s first mobile operator and was known as MTC until September 2007.

From modest beginnings in Kuwait, the firm now has more than 16,000 employees serving over 50 million customers in 15 African and seven Middle Eastern Countries including Ghana and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia where the company has promised would be launching its mobile telecommunications networks in the coming months.

In Africa Zain operates 14 countries that includes Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Kenya, Malawi, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. Operations in Ghana will begin in October this year.-Guardian