Abdeslam Ahizoune, chairman and CEO of incumbent Maroc Telecom, met with the Ivorian president Alassane Ouattara earlier this week to discuss potential investments in the West African country.
According to a statement published on the Cote d’Ivoire…
Abdeslam Ahizoune, chairman and CEO of incumbent Maroc Telecom, met with the Ivorian president Alassane Ouattara earlier this week to discuss potential investments in the West African country.
According to a statement published on the Cote d’Ivoire president’s official website, Ahizoune reportedly enquired about opportunities to invest in the country’s new technologies.
No further details were disclosed about the meeting and Maroc Telecom was not immediately available to elaborate on the matter.
The telco is expected to soon have its own mobile carrier in Cote d’Ivoire. Etisalat recently acquired a majority stake in Maroc Telecom and, as part of the deal, the UAE operator agreed to sell its operations in six West African countries, including Cote d’Ivoire, to the Moroccan company.
Etisalat did not disclose the rationale behind the deal, but an analyst told TelecomFinance at the time that the decision was motivated by Maroc Telecom’s success with its own subsidiaries in the region – in Burkina Faso, Gabon, Mali and Mauritania.
In late May, Cote d’Ivoire’s communications ministry called for the country’s three smallest mobile players to merge in order to create a viable fourth operator with a 10% market share. At present, Orange and MTN both control around 35% of the mobile market while Etisalat has 20%.
