/ 26 January 2001

ESKOM MULLS STAKE IN NIGERIA?S ECONET

ESKOM Enterprises, the business unit of South African power utility Eskom, and transport parastatal Transnet are considering acquiring an equity stake in newly licensed Nigerian mobile consortium Econet Wireless Nigeria. Furthermore, an agreement with National Electric Power Authority (Nepa), the Nigerian electricity monopoly, for the possible supply of telecommunication facilities, has been put in place by Eskom Enterprises. This provides the company with two possible avenues of entry into what could become one of the most lucrative telecommunication markets in Africa. Both South African utilities have been approached by Econet, a Zimbabwean-based mobile operator, to take a 15% stake in its Mount Kenya Communications consortium, which is said to be bidding more than $307m for a 49% stake in Telkom Kenya.