(Ecofin Agency) - In April 2022, Africell finally launched its commercial operations in Angola, after several postponements. The company is pulling out all the stops to gain a foothold in the country's telecom market hotly contested by Angola Telecom, Unitel, and Movicel.

Telecom operator Africell Angola has adopted tech company Covalense Digital Solutions’ CSmart platform for business support. The solution allows the telecom operator to accelerate the ongoing expansion of its network and the adoption of its services.

“Africell’s growth in Angola has outperformed expectations, indicating huge pent-up demand in Angola for quality and affordable telecommunications services. Csmart has been a key part of the story so far, giving us a solid technical footing on which to build our customer base in Luanda and Benguela,” explained Faissal Abdallah, Africell Angola’s CTO.

Africell officially started its commercial activities in Angola in April 2022. Since then, the company has been pursuing its deployment strategy, which is currently in its second stage. The operator's services are available in the provinces of Luanda and Benguela and cover approximately 11 million people. For the next stage, the company plans to expand into Lubango province in the second half of 2023.

With the acceleration of its geographic coverage and service adoption, Africell Angola is delivering on its promise to bring more competition to the Angolan telecom market with the introduction of "new products that make a positive difference for customers." The company claims more than seven million subscribers. However, according to statistics from the Angolan Institute of Communications (INACOM), in the second quarter of 2022, it had 3 million subscribers, controlling 15.5 percent of the market.  

Isaac K. Kassouwi