STATE-OWNED telecommunications company TelOne has reported a 20% increase in revenue amounting to ZiG2 billion despite ongoing challenges and a suffocating legacy debt of US$389 million.
TelOne chief executive officer Lawrence Nkala said the company realised increased inflation-adjusted revenue for the period under review compared to the prior year’s performance.
“The inflation-adjusted revenue increase for the period was largely driven by organic growth in the wholesale business segment, which grew by 102%, achieving sales of 81,8Gb [gigabyte] by period ended,” Nkala told journalists on the sidelines of the company’s annual general meeting.
“Enterprise business segment grew by 26%, achieving sales of 25,87Gb.
“Data centre and cloud solution business grew by 23% in terms of rack space occupancy and cloud storage demand.”
Nkala said home broadband subscribers increased by 5% to 147 876, with an average revenue per user per month of US$12 per subscriber.
Nkala, however, lamented the legacy debt amounting to US$389 million.
Government departments are some of the biggest debtors.
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“The legacy loan book has remained an encumbrance to TelOne’s balance sheet resulting in the company operating in a net liability position of ZiG32,2 million as of 31 December 2024 and this has hindered TelOne’s efforts to attract fresh capital required for network modernisation and digitalisation projects,” he said.
“Liquidity shortages persisted throughout the year, resulting in increased counterparty risks which negatively constrained the company’s working capital and its ability to fund capital expenditure.
“As of to date, the government of Zimbabwe is owing TelOne ZiG517,2 million which is equivalent to US$19,2 million and as TelOne, we continue to engage the government of Zimbabwe to timeously settle its dues through various settlement options.”
