The last week of January 2019 was filled with a lot of talk about MTN Uganda, having had three of the telco’s top executives deported in circumstances that the Uganda Police termed as national security threats.
Olivier Prentout, the then Chief Marketing Officer, Annie Bilenge Tabula, the then head of Sales and Distribution, and Elsa Mussolini,the then General Manager in charge of Mobile Financial Services were separately arrested, detained and deported by Uganda Police between 19th and 23rd of January to France, Rwanda, and Italy respectively.
Then, on the night of February 14 2019, MTN Uganda’s CEO Wim Van Halleputte was also deported to Belgium on “similar circumstances of national security”.
The CEO’s deportation followed the exit of the company’s General Manager in charge of Corporate Services, Anthony Katamba. It is unclear why the latter was laid off work but reports point at an internal rift with Mr. Wim.
In Part I of our series – What exactly is haunting MTN Uganda top executives? – we questioned what could have resulted in Police’s actions without the force making any proper statement on the matter.
Part II does exactly the same, while still assessing the outcomes of all this.
Is it an internal rift?
Ever since MTN Uganda’s license expired, back in October 2018, there has been an uneasy environment reported at the company headquarters.
Unverified reports claim that the heaviest fissure has been between the former CEO Wim Van Halleputte and his then manager of Corporate Affairs Anthony Katamba.
Could it be under declaration of taxes?
President Museveni has been noted to question MTN Uganda’s profit repatriation, which he says is limiting the development of the country. To this, he adds the under declaration of their returns to the revenue authorities which pose a big hindrance to the economy.
The President, in a meeting with MTN Group CEO, Rob Shuter in Davos talked about the company under declaring her profits to the government.
In my meeting with Mr Shuter, I also warned against telecoms underdeclaring calls and cheating our government of revenue. We have bought machines to track these calls but it is still important that the companies do not engage in this vice.
Is it the demands to have MTN Uganda listed?
The president, in the same meeting, also expressed his concerns of having the company listed on the Uganda Stock Exchange so that Ugandans can partly own the company.
Local ownership is important because it helps us stem capital flight which happens when the company is fully foreign owned. The question of repatriating 100% of your profits yet there is little value-addition and wealth creation for Ugandans is unfair.
During an interview in March 2018, the ousted CEO Wim Van Halleputte said that they were “working on getting localized” and this could see the company getting listed in less than 10 years. This was as well one of the terms put forward if the telco was to get a new license from UCC.
Are the foreign employees the target?
So far, most of the news surrounds the four top executives that have been deported. Save for the few that have knowledge of how affairs are run at the brand, majority of Ugandans think the company is purely run by foreigners.
In the above interview, Mr. Wim acknowledged the public’s concern and stated it well that MTN Uganda has 7 Ugandans in leading positions. While we can’t be certain if these are not among those being targeted, at least we know that the foreigners are reducing one by one.
Is it “matters of national security”?
Yes it is, at least according to the Uganda Police. What we don’t know is the detail to the accusation, and how deep it has to go to be revealed.
MTN unending woes
The year has began with the telecom company striving hard to renew her out of date license. The renewal was stalled by President Museveni who was not satisfied with how the fees to be paid were reduced from $100 million originally proposed to $58 million.
Yet, last year the Police raided one of MTN data centers over allegations of breach of national security. This saw several network engineers arrested to facilitate police investigations. Since then, no allegations ever came up not until the recent arrests and questioning.
The outcomes
After the first part of the series, we got feedback from you most of which indicated that you expected answers to the questions we were putting forward.
However, the fact of the matter is that this series was geared to equally question the matter but not to answer. It is only Uganda Police that has the best answers to what is haunting MTN Uganda executives.
