Sonatel advances its pawns in West Africa
June 13th 2021
Currently considered to be one of the jewels of the West African telecom market, the National Telecommunications Company of Senegal (Sonatel) is once again in conquest mode. Present in four markets in the sub-region since 2016, the subsidiary of the French multinational Orange is strengthening not only in broadband connectivity but also experimenting with new modes of telecom license exploitation. Investments aimed at achieving Orange’s ambition to become the benchmark multi-service digital operator on the continent.
In its 2020 financial report, Sonatel presented a turnover of 1206.1 billion FCFA, up 2.3% compared to 2019, driven by the strengthening of uses in the segments of mobile data, Orange Money and fixed internet. It attributed this growth to its subsidiaries in Guinea, Mali and Sierra Leone, which offset the decline in Senegal and Guinea Bissau.
It attributed this growth to its subsidiaries in Guinea, Mali and Sierra Leone, which offset the decline in Senegal and Guinea Bissau.
Since 2002, Sonatel’s international activities have contributed greatly to the group’s financial growth. Conquering new territories in West Africa is a desire that has never left the company in view of the opportunities still presented by several markets in the sub-region where access to quality telecom services and innovations are still lacking.
Sonatel outside Senegal.
Sonatel, which has set itself the ambition of being a player in the digital transformation of the sub-region, has designed a new phase of expansion for this purpose since 2019.
However, it is different from the previous ones. “ If you look at the telecommunications environment in Africa, it forces us to explore all the opportunities. The possibilities for new licenses are limited on our playground that is West Africa ”, revealed Sékou Dramé, the general manager of Sonatel in an interview published on May 31 by the Senegalese information site lesoleil.sn . Failing to acquire new operating titles, the incumbent operator of Senegal is in a way going off-piste.
New markets
The Gambian telecom market was the first target of the new phase of expansion hatched by Sonatel. On April 29, 2019, the group announced the conclusion of an agreement which should soon give it access to the Gambian market. The company has embarked on the acquisition of 91.6% of the Internet service provider Xoom Wireless, in partnership with the investment company Teranga Capital which will take a minority stake in the capital of the company. The agreements obtained are currently subject to the approval of the Gambian authorities.
However, it is unlikely that they will reject it given the stakes for the country. Sonatel is a benchmark player with significant investments. We must not forget its significant innovation factor. For The Gambia, which had an Internet penetration rate of 23.7% in January 2021 according to the Digital Report 2021 of Hootsuite and We are social, on a population of 2.45 million inhabitants, Sonatel is like a buoy rescue in the open sea.
For The Gambia, which had an Internet penetration rate of 23.7% in January 2021 according to the Digital Report 2021 of Hootsuite and We are social, on a population of 2.45 million inhabitants, Sonatel is like a buoy rescue in the open sea.
On April 3, 2021, Sonatel strengthened its position in the Guinean, Malian and Senegalese telecoms market and made a foray into that of Mauritania. The company has signed a management contract for the fiber optic guard cable (CGFO) of the Manantali Energy Management Company (SOGEM), within the framework of the Organization for the Development of the Senegal River (OMVS ). These are additional data capacities, in a context marked by an explosion in demand for connectivity, that Sonatel is now responsible for providing to millions of people in these four countries.
Harouna Diakité, the general secretary of Envol Technology, the partner company of Sonatel in this project, affirmed that “this network constitutes a contribution of growth of the Internet in the region […] and will stimulate the digital economy by meeting the needs connectivity and increased traffic in the sub-region ”.
Finally, on May 21, 2021, Sonatel entered Benin. Not as a telecoms operator but rather as delegated manager of the Beninese digital infrastructure company (SBIN).
ts mission is to make the public telecoms company of Benin quickly operational, by giving it the means to offer competitive offers and services to consumers, businesses and other telecom players.
Finally, on May 21, 2021, Sonatel entered Benin. Not as a telecoms operator but rather as delegated manager of the Beninese digital infrastructure company (SBIN).
Concretely for Sonatel, this will involve sharing technical and commercial skills, sharing experience in the development and implementation of a master plan, with the deployment of a state-of-the-art mobile network. generation, the launch of mobile and mobile money services and the strengthening of activities. The Beninese government trusts the ferocity expressed by Sonatel in the majority of its markets where it occupies the leadership position to break the duopoly maintained by MTN and Moov since 2017 and revive competition.
Projection
Sonatel has succeeded since 2019 in consolidating its presence in three markets where it already operates and will soon push its presence to a total of six foreign markets, taking Gambia and Mauritania into account in the equation.
By 2025, it is not excluded to see the telecom group achieve a new breakthrough in the sub-region. Sékou Dramé confirms this when he declares that ” we will continue to explore all the opportunities available to us in the sub-region […] We have, in the group, a solid governance which allows us, whenever the business environment allows it, to be able to project ourselves and to make this value proposition in countries that so desire in different forms: creation of subsidiaries, delegated management […] We have all these leads that we let us explore on our playground that is West Africa and we hope that some of them will succeed ”.
For the Orange group, Sonatel’s advance in West Africa will be of great benefit to it. The telecoms operator will indeed derive revenues from eleven markets out of the sixteen in the sub-region. These are Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Benin, Mauritania, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Liberia.
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