Africell Uganda


Africell Uganda, whose full legal name is Africell Uganda Limited, is an information and communication technology network company in Uganda. It is the third-largest telecommunications company in the country, by customer numbers.

Location

The headquarters and main office of AUL are located in the Africell Office Building, at 28–30 Clement Hill Road, on Nakasero Hill in the Central Division of Kampala, the capital and largest city in the country. The coordinates of the company headquarters are 0°19'09.0"N, 32°35'24.0"E.

History

Africell Uganda was established in May 2014, when Africell acquired the majority stake that Orange Telecom owned in its Uganda cellular network. Africell paid $12 million for that stake, inheriting an estimated 1,000,000 subscribers. In November 2014, the Group Chairman and CEO announced plans to invest US$150 million in the next 5 years, to upgrade the Africell network in Uganda.

Subscribers

In 2014, the network subscribers in Uganda were estimated at one million. As of September 2018, its subscriber customer numbers had risen to 2.1 million. In April 2020, the company's website gives the number of subscribers as over 3,000,000. The table below illustrates the progressive customer growth for the company.
RankDateSubscribersNotes
1December 2013625,000
2May 20141,000,000
3September 20182,100,000
4April 20203,000,000

Ownership

The table below summarizes the shareholding in the business.
RankName of OwnerPercentage Ownership
1Africell53.0
2Hits Telecom Holding47.0
Total100.00

Operations

In 2018, Africell Holdings, the parent company of Africell Uganda, secured a loan of US$100 million from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, to expand operations in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Africell Holdings maintains subsidiaries in the Gambia, Sierra Leone, DR Congo and Uganda. As of January 2015, Africell Uganda maintained coverage in the majority of Uganda's geographical area.