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Airtel Africa sells Towers in Malawi, Madagascar, Tanzania, recalls bonds over debts

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Airtel Africa Plc has been forced to sell off its telecommunication Towers in Malawi, Madagascar and Tanzania for a total of $284 million.

The company also recalled $505 million of its bonds as part of measures to pay off close to $3 billion debt on its balance sheet weighing down its continental operations.

By recalling a bond, a firm had to pay off the principal amount and the interest of a debt instrument before the due or maturity date and this occurs where the issuer, or the borrower, intends to clear the debt from its books and save on the regular interest payments.

The telecommunications company, a subsidiary of India’s Bharti Airtel Ltd, with operations in 14 African countries which has been going through a turbulent business terrain in recent times, redeemed the bonds that were to mature in March 2023, thereby saving $26 million on interest payments from the early redemption.

“In line with our strategy to continue to reduce foreign currency debt at Holding Company, we also repaid $505 million bonds in March 2022, a year earlier than their March 2023 redemption date,” the company said in a statement on Friday as part of its financial statements for the year ended March 31, 2022.

“Our balance sheet has also been further de-risked by continued localisation of our debt into the operating companies (OpCos) and material debt reduction in Holding Company (HoldCo),” the statement added.

As part of its revenue generating drive, The Airtel Group completed the sale of more than 2,600 telecommunication towers in Tanzania, Madagascar and Malawi generating total proceeds of $284 million which were used to partly reduce its debt to $2.9 billion from $3.5 billion.

The Tower sale proceeds, according to the company were Tanzania ($177 million), Malawi ($55m) and Madagascar ($52m), gaining it a profit of $111 million but the loss of tower sharing revenue as a result of the sale of these towers amounted to $29 million per annum.

In March 2021, the Group announced a memorandum of understanding arrangements with Helios Towers for the potential sale of its tower assets in Chad and Gabon, while in February 2022, Airtel Africa announced it had agreed an extension to their memorandum of understanding with Helios Towers in Gabon, with completion still subject to Helios Towers obtaining a passive infrastructure licence.

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Binance vs Nigeria: Court adjourns hearing on right abuses 

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The office of Nigeria’s National Security Adviser and an anti-graft agency— the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC)— have been sued by two executives of Binance, the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, for allegedly violating their fundamental rights following their recent arrest.

Following Nigeria’s decision to outlaw several cryptocurrency trading websites, United States citizen Tigran Gambaryan, who oversees financial crime compliance for Binance, and British-Kenyan Nadeem Anjarwalla, regional manager for Binance in Africa, took a plane to Nigeria on February 26 and were arrested upon arrival.

Anjarwalla may now be subject to an international arrest warrant after reportedly escaping Nigerian custody last week.

Last month, Nigeria’s central bank governor revealed that Binance is under investigation in Nigeria due to “suspicious flows” of cash through Binance Nigeria in 2023. Government organizations such as the Securities and Trade Commission of the nation are already wary of the cryptocurrency trade.

In a court appearance on Thursday, Gambaryan asked Judge Iyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court in the country’s capital, Abuja to rule that the National Security Adviser and the Economic and EFCC detention and seizure of his passport “amounts to a violation of his fundamental right to personal liberty” as stipulated by the Nigerian constitution.

The Binance chiefs also demanded a public apology, a restraining order to prevent them from being detained any longer, and an order to be released and return their passports. They said they had not been told of any offences.

Due to the absence of attorneys from the EFCC and the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), the judge adjourned the hearing till April 8 without rendering a decision. Nigeria is currently struggling with ongoing dollar shortages, a situation that has made several cryptocurrency websites become the go-to venues for trading Nigerian currency.

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Kenya, Uganda settle oil import dispute

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In an effort to patch things up between the two neighbours, Kenya will permit Uganda’s landlocked state oil company to import petroleum products through its port of Mombasa, the country’s energy ministry said on Thursday.

After decades of receiving their cargo through affiliated firms in Kenya, Uganda has been looking for alternative ways to import petroleum products, including through a port in Tanzania. According to Solomon Muyita, a spokesman for Uganda’s ministry of minerals and energy, the first shipment under the new arrangement is scheduled for May.

“Kenya has agreed to give us a licence, UNOC (Uganda National Oil Company) is now free to import through Mombasa,” he said.

According to reports, UNOC would use the Kenya Pipeline Company to transport the goods, so Kenya would still profit from the agreement, according to Kenyan Energy Minister Davis Chirchir.

In 2022, Uganda imported petroleum products valued at $1.6 billion, the majority of which came from the Gulf. Kenya serves as the import gateway for about 90% of the goods.

It declared in November that it would transfer all exclusive petroleum product supply rights to a division of the international energy trader Vitol, which would subsequently supply UNOC.

According to what the government said at the time, using Kenyan companies to import oil had “exposed Uganda to occasional supply vulnerabilities” whereby Ugandan retail companies were viewed as secondary whenever there were supply disruptions changing retail prices.

The two African nations that make up the Great Lakes are partners in a variety of fields, including trade, infrastructure, energy, education, agriculture, and military security.

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