The injection of new management at NetOne has seen the company posting its first profit in the month of May 2018. Speaking at the company’s Annual General Meeting held on Friday 22 June 2018, the NetOne CEO, Lazarus Muchenje, advised shareholders that the company was headed for positive performance as evidenced by the profit of $1.2million in May 2018.
Mr Muchenje expressed optimism that NetOne is on the path to recovery given the May performance as well as the aggressive strategies that the company is implementing. NetOne has been a perennial loss maker despite being the first company in the country to be granted a mobile telecommunications licence.
Mr Muchenje joined NetOne in April 2018 as the substantive CEO for the company. He has a wealth of experience in the telecommunications industry having worked for the Vodacom Group for a substantial period of time.
The possible return to profitability of the company is good news for the Government, its Shareholder, as NetOne is earmarked for partial privatisation with a number of foreign investors already showing a keen interest in investing in the company. Partial privatisation is expected to result in improved performance for the state owned entity.
Presenting the 2017 financial results at the Annual General Meeting, the NetOne Chief Finance Officer, Mrs Sibusisiwe Ndhlovu, noted that NetOne had suffered a loss of $57.8 million as a result of exchange losses on the loans received for their network expansion project, as well as penalties and fines levied for non-compliance on legacy statutory obligations.