Botswana Telecommunication Corporation Limited (BTC) is mulling expanding to foreign markets but is deterred by the absence of opportunities, Managing Director, Anthony Masunga has disclosed.
“We have looked for opportunities here in Botswana, but they were not great,” Masunga said.
“We went to Zambia and they were also not so great when we looked at them.”
He was responding to a question from Head of Trading at Stockbrokers Botswana, Kennedy Kgomanyane who asked if BTC has plans for regional growth given the small size of the domestic market, either by setting up new business or acquisition in the foreign market.
This is because he said the BTC’s revenue has not been growing impressively since listing.
However, Masunga stated that expansion is a long process that also requires the attention of the executive committee.
“Botswana is a small market and expansion is an area of focus,” Masunga said.
“But the resilience of BTC stems from its revenue mix, and we have seen it happen over time.”
Giving an example, Masunga said during the COVID-19 era, fixed voice was almost non-existent as it is anchored by corporates, but that was offset by other revenue streams.
“Fixed data is under immense pressure purely because of business competition and the prices are generally coming down,” said the BTC MD.
Since listing in April 2016, BTC’s revenue has barely registered a double-digit percentage growth.
In 2017, a year after its entrance in the domestic stock, BTC revenue grew by 8 percent to P1.6 billion.
And now, seven years later, BTC registered a 3 percent growth in revenue for the year ended 31 March 2024 at P1.4 billion.
This revenue increase, BTC said, was driven by the growth in fixed voice services and strong demand for mobile data services.
Upon listing in 2016, the government retained 51 percent shareholding in the company, while 49 percent was put up for grabs for both indigenous institutional investors and individuals.
However, there have been numerous calls for the liberation of the BTC shares, which are yet to be heeded.
“We have engaged for many years, but the government is neither saying yes or no,” Masunga said.
“We have empowered Batswana and we continue to do so, but it is high time we do more because they don’t benefit from capital gain appreciation.”
Ever since listing at a price of P1 per share, BTC share price has been trading far much less than that Initial Public Offering price, save for a couple of years after listing when it showed some signs of potential.
Despite these challenges, Masunga said BTC’s main objective is to become a top digital services provider in Botswana for the financial year 2025.
BTC’s strategy aims to boost revenue by offering high-quality services at affordable prices, targeting specific customer groups across different areas.
It also aims to leverage cost savings to enhance profitability by the financial year 2025.
BTC’s digital transformation ambition is supported by the upgrade of its network infrastructure to provide nationwide high-speed internet services.
The telco’s ambition is to continue expanding its mobile network and enhancing service quality through new site construction and upgrades.
The company has also had to contend with copper theft and last year it reported an unprecedented increase in theft and vandalism of its copper infrastructure which amounted to P56 million.
But this has now been contained as the company has started replacing copper infrastructure with fiber, an exercise that is expected to finish by the end of next year.
This time around, BTC said theft and vandalism of its infrastructure has cost it P10 million.
Despite challenges like copper theft and vandalism of network equipment, BTC said it is committed to delivering high-speed broadband by accelerating the replacement of copper infrastructure with advanced technologies.
“A significant investment went into what we call technology transformation,” Masunga disclosed.
“Those investments range from modernising copper network to fibre network, digital data centre, and modernising our mobile network.”
