In a keynote interview at the Middle East Com conference attended by 400 industry leaders, Elfatih Erwa, CEO of Zain Sudan has expressed confidence in the overall growth of the telecom sector in the country with expected increase in mobile penetration rates and explosive growth of mobile data and prospects of mobile money services.
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The company boasts over 11.4 million customers with an estimated 40% of them already utilizing their devices to access internet. Approximately 11% of Zain Sudan’s revenues are from data and Erwa expects this to grow to 15% by end of 2015 as smartphone usage picks up further. Erwa said that they have experienced 15% revenue growth year-on-year in local currency terms, and enjoy a leading 41% customer market share that reflects a 60% share of revenues in the overall market.
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Zain Sudan in the last 12 months has invested over US$100 million in network upgrades and is poised well to build the next generation 4G LTE mobile networks. Erwa noted that Zain Sudan could launch 4G commercially within three or four months of being given permission to do so by the regulator, being the preferred provider in the country and the company benefits from significant synergies with Zain Group.
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On human resource development, the mobile operator has recently raised employee wages by about 15 percent to mitigate rampant inflation in the country and invested heavily in training and development programs.
“I’m optimistic about the potential of the telecom sector in Sudan and similarly for the future of Zain Sudan. We shall continue developing our strong distribution channels and innovating with new services, focusing on providing customers the best mobile experience in the country. We remain committed to deliver our brand promise of a Wonderful World to the communities we serve.”
- Elfatih Erwa, CEO of Zain Sudan
