in Airtel

Some interesting news lately from the Business Daily:

Airtel Kenya is operating under the licence previously held by Essar, which it bought out last year, as its permit which expired in February is yet to be renewed.

The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) yesterday said it was still considering “a number of issues” before renewing Airtel’s licence.

Why would Airtel not renew their license? I wonder what the CA means by issues? Perhaps they’re considering the imminent sale of Airtel Kenya to Tigo as posited by NairobiTech:

…Airtel Group is selling four more African units to operator Tigo. These include Uganda, Niger and Gabon as Bharti Airtel looks to cut its losses on the African continent. 

Speculation is now rife that Tigo could also end up taking over the Kenyan unit with pundits predicting a total Airtel exit by February next year.  

The current MD of Airtel Kenya, Adel Youseffi, was previously heading the Tigo Ghana operation.

I’d like to point out that I can’t find any official sources to corroborate NairobiTech’s post but s/he has proven to be rather reliable in the past. Also my own sources seem to point to the same thing but took pains to point out that it’s still possible the deal may fall through. We’ll see. Peace!!

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