Last month, we told you of how Econet owned Kwesé was put under administration and that the company had appointed Ernst & Young to manage the process. The company CEO, Joseph Hundah, clearly stated that they were in talks with creditors to rescue the business.
It seems the rescue mission did not bear any fruits. Reports coming in from Zimbabwe reveal that the company has put its media unit up for sale after saying earlier this month it would be closed because of a shortage of foreign currency in the country.
The administrators, Ernst & Young, have placed a newspaper advertisement in which they stated that they would “oversee offers for all or part of the company’s shareholdings in businesses” in the various countries that Kwese was operating in.
These include Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Zambia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Mauritius, Ghana, Kenya and Dubai.
Econet Media, which operates under the brands Econet Media and Kwese, has been running businesses that offer satellite broadcasting, free-to-air television and digital distribution of media content.
The Kwesé brand was unveiled under the company in 2015 an became popular with unique TV offers including sports and entertainment services across a number of African countries. It would later in 2017 bring on a Roku-based VoD streaming service, the Kwesé Play.
Towards the close of last year, the unit announced that it was changing its business strategy with a focus on a digital future. The company was to shift its pay TV broadcast network from mainly delivering content via decoders to Kwesé Free Sports (KFS), Kwesé iflix and Kwesé Play – just a year and a half after launch.
Earlier this August, the company confirmed it will shut its African pay-TV arm Kwesé due to economic issues in its home country of Zimbabwe. This was just days after Kwese Play subscribers received notifications that Econet would no longer offer the service to them.
