Telkom Kenya applies for EIB loan to help fund €75m network investment
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Telkom Kenya applies for EIB loan to help fund €75m network investment

Telkom Kenya is planning a €75 million network expansion to boost mobile coverage and to improve its mobile money network.

The company – 60% owned by Helios Investment Partners – is hoping to borrow €33 million of the total from the European Investment Bank (EIB), according to local media in Kenya.

The EIB has received Telkom Kenya’s application for a loan but has not yet approved it. The Daily Nation said: “The EIB stated that the loan application is still being evaluated.” Telkom Kenya is talking to other possible financiers.

According to the newspaper the loan application follows plans to invest €120 million in its network and services from 2017 to 2021. Last year it spent the equivalent of €40 million on a metropolitan fibre network to enable the launch of 4G, now available in 32 cities and urban centres across the country.

Telkom Kenya hopes the investment will bolster its position against market-leading Safaricom, ultimately controlled by Vodafone through its South African offshoot Vodacom. Telkom Kenya closed its Orange Money application after it ceased to be part of the Orange group and is planning to launch its own money service, to compete against Safaricom’s MPesa.




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