MTC deal leads to record dividend

NAMIBIA Post and Telecom Holdings Ltd (NPTH) made history by handing over a staggering dividend of N$648 million to Government on Friday.

The dividend, said to be the largest ever paid to the State by any parastatal, was boosted by the proceeds of the sale of 34 per cent of the country’s first cellphone operator, Mobile Telecommunications (MTC), to Portugal Telecom. Portugal Telecom acquired the stake in MTC for N$1 billion in July.NPTH, which is wholly owned by Government, is the parent holding company of MTC, sole fixed-line operator Telecom Namibia and Namibia Post Limited.The Minister of Works, Transport and Communication, Joel Kaapanda, said Portugal Telecom’s buying into MTC proved that Namibia was an attractive investment destination, adding that the new technical expertise and financial resources would contribute to the development of the country’s telecommunications sector.”The advantages of these investments are enormous: job opportunities and skills training for our people as well as considerable revenue generation activities to fund various Government social programmes,” he said.Kaapanda commended the work being done by the NPTH group of companies in their contribution towards achieving Vision 2030 – which seeks to make Namibia an industrialised nation by the year 2030.Portugal Telecom acquired the stake in MTC for N$1 billion in July.NPTH, which is wholly owned by Government, is the parent holding company of MTC, sole fixed-line operator Telecom Namibia and Namibia Post Limited.The Minister of Works, Transport and Communication, Joel Kaapanda, said Portugal Telecom’s buying into MTC proved that Namibia was an attractive investment destination, adding that the new technical expertise and financial resources would contribute to the development of the country’s telecommunications sector.”The advantages of these investments are enormous: job opportunities and skills training for our people as well as considerable revenue generation activities to fund various Government social programmes,” he said.Kaapanda commended the work being done by the NPTH group of companies in their contribution towards achieving Vision 2030 – which seeks to make Namibia an industrialised nation by the year 2030.