A Malawian social worker has been given the go-ahead to travel to London and assess Madonna's suitability to adopt a child from the African country.
Penstone Kilembe said the government had reversed an earlier decision, allowing him to visit the pop star.
The official told Reuters Madonna was "looking forward to this so her adoption process is not hampered".
He had warned blocking his visit could have jeopardised Madonna's attempt to adopt David Banda.
Mr Kilembe added that the refusal of Kate Kainja, the Malawian minister of women and child development, to grant him permission to assess Madonna and husband Guy Richie's suitability to adopt the boy could have caused the entire process to "crumble".
Earlier in August he even indicated that the child might have to be sent back to his village.
'Misunderstanding'
The country's High Court will rely on the director of Malawi's child welfare services' testimony to rule on whether the singer should be granted final approval to adopt the child.
He has denied reports that Ms Kainja accused him of obtaining an air ticket and money from Madonna without government approval.
She was reported in a Malawian newspaper as saying that Mr Kilembe had "personalised the whole issue" and that other officials could make the assessment in his place.
He said the matter was a "misunderstanding" which "has now been resolved", adding that Madonna has been informed of the proposed visitation dates.
The proposed visit will last for two weeks from 4 September, Mr Kilembe said.
Last October, the star was granted an 18-month interim custody order enabling her to take David Banda out of Malawi.
The adoption will only receive final approval when the country's authorities are satisfied that the child is being properly looked after.
Monday, 27 August 2007
Unicef Uses Qur’an to Defend Malawi Kids
UNICEF is promoting the use of the Qur’an to ensure that children’s fundamental rights to survival and development are achieved.
UNICEF and the Malawi government are promoting the use of the Noble Qur’an and the Bible to ensure that children’s fundamental rights to survival and development are achieved and attainable for the majority of children in the southern African country.
“The initiative seeks to ensure survival and development of children where we believe the faith community takes the leading role,” Ida Girma, UNICEF country representative, said.
“Children are mostly exposed to religious teachings and it is our wish that they also acquire necessary information about their survival from Madrasahs or Sunday school.”
This program is aimed at using the holy books in developing communication packages on accelerated child survival and development, prevention of mother to child transmission of the HIV and social sanitation.
The project, being coordinated by the Malawi Interfaith AIDS Association, focuses on 12 out of the country’s 28 districts.
Muslims from over 2,500 mosques, Catholic Christians from 7 dioceses in 142 parishes, Protestant Christians in 22 member churches and Protestant Christians in 36 member churches will participate.
“We need to maximize the potential of the faith community,” said Health Minister Marjorie Ngaunje.
“It already has unique and outstanding character of communication materials that it is the first time this has happened in Malawi.”
Welcomed
Organizers hope the program would help to avert preventable and curable diseases.
“Child deaths as a result of preventable and curable diseases can be prevented by scaling up efforts of different structures and the faith community is undoubtedly one of the most important one,” Girma stressed.
“It is our hope that this program would reduce child deaths from 984 per 100 thousand to 73 deaths by the year 2020.”
The program has been received well by faith leaders.
“It is a global trend that we are now shifting towards faith involvement on matters of social concern,” said Pastor Francis Mkandawire of the Evangelical Association of Malawi.
“The faith community is effective when it comes to the issues of child survival.”
He said that the church realizes the fact that care for children is a God-given right.
“It’s undisputable that most people are committed to save in the way of God. For instance, most people volunteer and devout their time and money on faith events which makes it free of any budgetary strains and sustainable.”
Sheikh Mohammad Osman, secretary general of the Majlis Ulama Council of Malawi and a trustee of the Malawi Interfaith AIDS Association, agrees.
“We have always taught these things in madrasahs but this project will give us courage to emphasize and amplify the messages,” he said.
Osman added that madrasahs across the country are instrumental in aspects such as education and health, hence their perpetual effectiveness.
“The first thing children are taught at madrasah is hygiene etiquettes of taharah purity and wudu ablution, for example,” he noted.
“This could effectively help in the prevention of diseases.”
Islam is the second largest religion in Malawi after Christianity.
Official statistics suggest they constitute 12 percent of the 12 million population but the Muslim Mother body Muslim Association of Malawi say they are over 36 percent.
UNICEF and the Malawi government are promoting the use of the Noble Qur’an and the Bible to ensure that children’s fundamental rights to survival and development are achieved and attainable for the majority of children in the southern African country.
“The initiative seeks to ensure survival and development of children where we believe the faith community takes the leading role,” Ida Girma, UNICEF country representative, said.
“Children are mostly exposed to religious teachings and it is our wish that they also acquire necessary information about their survival from Madrasahs or Sunday school.”
This program is aimed at using the holy books in developing communication packages on accelerated child survival and development, prevention of mother to child transmission of the HIV and social sanitation.
The project, being coordinated by the Malawi Interfaith AIDS Association, focuses on 12 out of the country’s 28 districts.
Muslims from over 2,500 mosques, Catholic Christians from 7 dioceses in 142 parishes, Protestant Christians in 22 member churches and Protestant Christians in 36 member churches will participate.
“We need to maximize the potential of the faith community,” said Health Minister Marjorie Ngaunje.
“It already has unique and outstanding character of communication materials that it is the first time this has happened in Malawi.”
Welcomed
Organizers hope the program would help to avert preventable and curable diseases.
“Child deaths as a result of preventable and curable diseases can be prevented by scaling up efforts of different structures and the faith community is undoubtedly one of the most important one,” Girma stressed.
“It is our hope that this program would reduce child deaths from 984 per 100 thousand to 73 deaths by the year 2020.”
The program has been received well by faith leaders.
“It is a global trend that we are now shifting towards faith involvement on matters of social concern,” said Pastor Francis Mkandawire of the Evangelical Association of Malawi.
“The faith community is effective when it comes to the issues of child survival.”
He said that the church realizes the fact that care for children is a God-given right.
“It’s undisputable that most people are committed to save in the way of God. For instance, most people volunteer and devout their time and money on faith events which makes it free of any budgetary strains and sustainable.”
Sheikh Mohammad Osman, secretary general of the Majlis Ulama Council of Malawi and a trustee of the Malawi Interfaith AIDS Association, agrees.
“We have always taught these things in madrasahs but this project will give us courage to emphasize and amplify the messages,” he said.
Osman added that madrasahs across the country are instrumental in aspects such as education and health, hence their perpetual effectiveness.
“The first thing children are taught at madrasah is hygiene etiquettes of taharah purity and wudu ablution, for example,” he noted.
“This could effectively help in the prevention of diseases.”
Islam is the second largest religion in Malawi after Christianity.
Official statistics suggest they constitute 12 percent of the 12 million population but the Muslim Mother body Muslim Association of Malawi say they are over 36 percent.
ANTI-GAY PROTESTS HIT JACK
FORMER First Minister Jack McConnell's new job has prompted protests from people angry at his support for gay rights.
The objections have been raised by opposition politicians in Malawi, where McConnell is to be High Commissioner.
McConnell, who quit as Scots Labour leader this month, is due to take up the role after elections in 2011.
But Friday Jumbe, of the country's United Democratic Front, said: "To have a man of such character, who supports gay rights, come to Malawi is dangerous for us.
"He can use his influence to force legislation and that is my biggest fear."
McConnell was First Minister when civil partnerships were introduced in 2005. He also supported allowing gay couples to adopt children.
In Malawi, homosexuality is a crime that carries up to 14 years in prison.
McConnell's appointment has already been criticised in Britain by the top civil servants' union, the First Division Association.
They said the job should be filled by a career diplomat, not a political appointee.
A spokesman for McConnell said yesterday: "He is not going there to tell people what to do.
He is going with the aim of helping to improve the education young people receive.
"His intentions and commitment are clear and have been widely welcomed in Malawi."
As First Minister, McConnell restored historic links between Scotland and Malawi
The objections have been raised by opposition politicians in Malawi, where McConnell is to be High Commissioner.
McConnell, who quit as Scots Labour leader this month, is due to take up the role after elections in 2011.
But Friday Jumbe, of the country's United Democratic Front, said: "To have a man of such character, who supports gay rights, come to Malawi is dangerous for us.
"He can use his influence to force legislation and that is my biggest fear."
McConnell was First Minister when civil partnerships were introduced in 2005. He also supported allowing gay couples to adopt children.
In Malawi, homosexuality is a crime that carries up to 14 years in prison.
McConnell's appointment has already been criticised in Britain by the top civil servants' union, the First Division Association.
They said the job should be filled by a career diplomat, not a political appointee.
A spokesman for McConnell said yesterday: "He is not going there to tell people what to do.
He is going with the aim of helping to improve the education young people receive.
"His intentions and commitment are clear and have been widely welcomed in Malawi."
As First Minister, McConnell restored historic links between Scotland and Malawi
African life stuns, yet stirs hope
The two white couples who had been seated in first class, bantering away in Afrikaans, also disembarked our flight from Johannesburg. But while the rest of us passengers ambled toward the immigration counter at Kamuzu International Airport in Malawi, the two couples were whisked away by a van that had been parked, brazen as the day, on the tarmac.
Constructed when the British still officially occupied and were riding herd over blacks in Malawi, Africa's poorest nation, the airport in Lilongwe, the capital, meets the barest standards. It has a single gate each for arrivals and departures. As of two Fridays ago, a sign handwritten in felt-tip pen on a sheet of plain white copy paper announced Kamuzu's "Business Lounge." The lounge furniture included a shattered glass-top coffee table and two sets each of sofas and chairs covered in a tweed-like teal fabric from yesteryear and stained brown from dirty elbows rubbing endlessly against them.
Do watch your step, or risk tripping on the frayed vinyl casing of a stairway leading to the airport's basement toilets. Kamuzu's disrepair perhaps accounts for the perfectly coiffed and tanned Afrikaaner couples circumventing, by special arrangement, immigration and the customs agent who rifled through the contents of everybody else's baggage with his naked hand.
The day I boarded the same flight as those two couples, I was three-quarters through another trip to Africa where I tell any among the black indigenous who indulge me that I am African born in America, that I'm proud to be an African, that I have hope for Africa's future. This is my way of walking in the land of my people's people, where the indigenous people, economically and in other terms, are more likely than not to be underdogs.
At the sight and sound of Afrikaaner jet-setters, chattering away in a language that had symbolized the evils of South African apartheid, I flinch almost automatically. White privilege and continued dominance in Africa - and the power of other non-African transplants - makes me want to vomit and cry and hurt somebody. I am only human.
Part of my assignment in Africa, a trip that mixed work and play, was to interview a prominent black pastor from Los Angeles who founded Save Africa's Children, a nearly 7-year-old project benefiting AIDS orphans. Like the pastor and his 50-person crew of mission-minded black Americans, I'd booked a room at a Lilongwe hotel owned by East Indians. East Indians also own the grocery market in that small complex. A white woman, a Brit, owns the coffee shop and, etcetera and on and on like that go the businesses in that area, though black employees were out front at each of them.
When several native Malawi pastors, bedecked in their clerical collars and best suits, arrived for a formal hotel dinner hosted by the Californians, they brought their wives, several of whom were barefoot and embarrassed by their insufficient attire. Seeing them shoeless, the Californians fell into a staggering silence.
And that also overtook me. Black Africa's burdens will not be ameliorated by the headline-making adoption of a Malawian baby by world-famous Madonna or her kind, the Californians told me, but, perhaps, by black Americans of affluence doing what other American tribes do for their ethnic kin in other countries, especially when their kin are in trouble.
The burdens of black Africa prevail, despite notable advances. Oil wealth raised living standards for some Nigerians. Here and there is a spot relatively free of war and hunger, but only here and there.
In South Africa, the mainly black-run government, which comes against daily allegations of corruption in news headlines, also has constructed 2 million of a promised 7 million units of housing for people who'd been squatters. (Some new homeowners complain of shoddy work.) The nation's number of Range Rover-driving, luxury-living blacks is mind-bending, considering that South Africa is a mere 13 years out of apartheid.
Those realities aside, Zwelivelile Mandlesizwe Mandela, Nelson Mandela's oldest grandchild, a tribal chief, businessman and Rhodes University graduate student, told me that 60 percent of South African wealth belongs to white people. Johannesburg-based journalist Dele Olojede, whose coverage of Rwandan genocide won him and Newsday a Pulitzer Prize, puts the figure closer to 80 percent. "The trick is that whites still hold the land," he told me.
I love Africa and am petrified by certain facts of black African life. As an African born in America, I must believe there will come a time when black Africans claim Africa for themselves, and own it outright.
Constructed when the British still officially occupied and were riding herd over blacks in Malawi, Africa's poorest nation, the airport in Lilongwe, the capital, meets the barest standards. It has a single gate each for arrivals and departures. As of two Fridays ago, a sign handwritten in felt-tip pen on a sheet of plain white copy paper announced Kamuzu's "Business Lounge." The lounge furniture included a shattered glass-top coffee table and two sets each of sofas and chairs covered in a tweed-like teal fabric from yesteryear and stained brown from dirty elbows rubbing endlessly against them.
Do watch your step, or risk tripping on the frayed vinyl casing of a stairway leading to the airport's basement toilets. Kamuzu's disrepair perhaps accounts for the perfectly coiffed and tanned Afrikaaner couples circumventing, by special arrangement, immigration and the customs agent who rifled through the contents of everybody else's baggage with his naked hand.
The day I boarded the same flight as those two couples, I was three-quarters through another trip to Africa where I tell any among the black indigenous who indulge me that I am African born in America, that I'm proud to be an African, that I have hope for Africa's future. This is my way of walking in the land of my people's people, where the indigenous people, economically and in other terms, are more likely than not to be underdogs.
At the sight and sound of Afrikaaner jet-setters, chattering away in a language that had symbolized the evils of South African apartheid, I flinch almost automatically. White privilege and continued dominance in Africa - and the power of other non-African transplants - makes me want to vomit and cry and hurt somebody. I am only human.
Part of my assignment in Africa, a trip that mixed work and play, was to interview a prominent black pastor from Los Angeles who founded Save Africa's Children, a nearly 7-year-old project benefiting AIDS orphans. Like the pastor and his 50-person crew of mission-minded black Americans, I'd booked a room at a Lilongwe hotel owned by East Indians. East Indians also own the grocery market in that small complex. A white woman, a Brit, owns the coffee shop and, etcetera and on and on like that go the businesses in that area, though black employees were out front at each of them.
When several native Malawi pastors, bedecked in their clerical collars and best suits, arrived for a formal hotel dinner hosted by the Californians, they brought their wives, several of whom were barefoot and embarrassed by their insufficient attire. Seeing them shoeless, the Californians fell into a staggering silence.
And that also overtook me. Black Africa's burdens will not be ameliorated by the headline-making adoption of a Malawian baby by world-famous Madonna or her kind, the Californians told me, but, perhaps, by black Americans of affluence doing what other American tribes do for their ethnic kin in other countries, especially when their kin are in trouble.
The burdens of black Africa prevail, despite notable advances. Oil wealth raised living standards for some Nigerians. Here and there is a spot relatively free of war and hunger, but only here and there.
In South Africa, the mainly black-run government, which comes against daily allegations of corruption in news headlines, also has constructed 2 million of a promised 7 million units of housing for people who'd been squatters. (Some new homeowners complain of shoddy work.) The nation's number of Range Rover-driving, luxury-living blacks is mind-bending, considering that South Africa is a mere 13 years out of apartheid.
Those realities aside, Zwelivelile Mandlesizwe Mandela, Nelson Mandela's oldest grandchild, a tribal chief, businessman and Rhodes University graduate student, told me that 60 percent of South African wealth belongs to white people. Johannesburg-based journalist Dele Olojede, whose coverage of Rwandan genocide won him and Newsday a Pulitzer Prize, puts the figure closer to 80 percent. "The trick is that whites still hold the land," he told me.
I love Africa and am petrified by certain facts of black African life. As an African born in America, I must believe there will come a time when black Africans claim Africa for themselves, and own it outright.
McConnell challenged on Malawi job over his support for gay rights
SENIOR Malawian politicians have vowed to challenge Jack McConnell's appointment as their country's next high commissioner because of his support for gay rights, it emerged yesterday.
Friday Jumbe, presidential candidate for the main opposition party, the United Democratic Front, said
Mr McConnell supported the repeal of Section 28, which banned teaching about homosexuality in schools, and oversaw the introduction of same-sex civil partnerships.
"To have a man who supports gay rights to come to Malawi is dangerous for us," Mr Jumbe said. "He can easily use his influence as high commissioner to force legislation and that's my biggest fear.
"I don't want him and I know I am speaking for my party and many legislators that we cannot allow such a person in Malawi."
This is the latest in a series of problems to hit Mr McConnell's appointment as the next British High Commissioner of Malawi.
He is due to take up the role in 2009 but Gordon Brown's decision to appoint a Labour politician angered unions representing senior civil servants, who said the post should have been decided in an open competition.
Now Mr McConnell seems to have infuriated some politicians in Malawi simply by his approach to issues in Scotland.
However, the opposition of Mr Jumbe has to be seen in the context of Mr McConnell's good working relationship with Bingu wa Mutharika, Malawi's president.
Mr McConnell got on well with Mr Mutharika when he visited Malawi in 2005 and again when the president came to Scotland on a return visit.
The two leaders signed a joint co-operation agreement, forging close links between the two administrations and Mr Mutharika is unlikely to oppose the appointment of someone with whom he works so well.
It would also be unheard of for a British high commissioner to try to force legislation through the Malawian parliament, as Mr Jumbe fears. But his intervention is embarrassing, both for Mr McConnell and the UK government, which put him forward for the post.
A spokesman for the former first minister said: "Jack McConnell is not going there to tell the people or their politicians what to do. He is going with the aim of helping to improve the education that young people receive.
"His intentions and commitments are clear and have been widely welcomed in Malawi."
Malawi is strongly anti-gay, criminalising homosexual acts between consenting adults. Earlier this year, its legal affairs committee rejected pleas from human rights lawyers to repeal the code.
AID VOW, BUT MALAWI NOT ALONE
THE Scottish Executive gives £3 million a year to Malawi in the form of aid to Scottish charities working in the southern African country.
The Malawi initiative was started by Jack McConnell in 2005 when he was first minister.
The SNP-led Executive has promised to widen the scope of Scotland's aid effort. Last week it announced it was doubling the foreign aid budget to £9 million.
Linda Fabiani, the minister responsible, stressed that the new Executive would not scale back the resources that had been given to Malawi.
But the minister added: "Scotland also has strong links with other countries, many of which would benefit from assistance, and it is right that we do not forget them."
Friday Jumbe, presidential candidate for the main opposition party, the United Democratic Front, said
Mr McConnell supported the repeal of Section 28, which banned teaching about homosexuality in schools, and oversaw the introduction of same-sex civil partnerships.
"To have a man who supports gay rights to come to Malawi is dangerous for us," Mr Jumbe said. "He can easily use his influence as high commissioner to force legislation and that's my biggest fear.
"I don't want him and I know I am speaking for my party and many legislators that we cannot allow such a person in Malawi."
This is the latest in a series of problems to hit Mr McConnell's appointment as the next British High Commissioner of Malawi.
He is due to take up the role in 2009 but Gordon Brown's decision to appoint a Labour politician angered unions representing senior civil servants, who said the post should have been decided in an open competition.
Now Mr McConnell seems to have infuriated some politicians in Malawi simply by his approach to issues in Scotland.
However, the opposition of Mr Jumbe has to be seen in the context of Mr McConnell's good working relationship with Bingu wa Mutharika, Malawi's president.
Mr McConnell got on well with Mr Mutharika when he visited Malawi in 2005 and again when the president came to Scotland on a return visit.
The two leaders signed a joint co-operation agreement, forging close links between the two administrations and Mr Mutharika is unlikely to oppose the appointment of someone with whom he works so well.
It would also be unheard of for a British high commissioner to try to force legislation through the Malawian parliament, as Mr Jumbe fears. But his intervention is embarrassing, both for Mr McConnell and the UK government, which put him forward for the post.
A spokesman for the former first minister said: "Jack McConnell is not going there to tell the people or their politicians what to do. He is going with the aim of helping to improve the education that young people receive.
"His intentions and commitments are clear and have been widely welcomed in Malawi."
Malawi is strongly anti-gay, criminalising homosexual acts between consenting adults. Earlier this year, its legal affairs committee rejected pleas from human rights lawyers to repeal the code.
AID VOW, BUT MALAWI NOT ALONE
THE Scottish Executive gives £3 million a year to Malawi in the form of aid to Scottish charities working in the southern African country.
The Malawi initiative was started by Jack McConnell in 2005 when he was first minister.
The SNP-led Executive has promised to widen the scope of Scotland's aid effort. Last week it announced it was doubling the foreign aid budget to £9 million.
Linda Fabiani, the minister responsible, stressed that the new Executive would not scale back the resources that had been given to Malawi.
But the minister added: "Scotland also has strong links with other countries, many of which would benefit from assistance, and it is right that we do not forget them."
Celtel plans ‘One Network’ for all Africa
Celtel International, one of the leading pan-African mobile telecommunications companies, plans to link the whole of Africa to its One Network by 2010.
Speaking to The EastAfrican in Dar es Salaam when launching the “One Office for East Africa” service, Celtel Tanzania Ltd marketing director Margaret Kositany said, “Our focus is to make Africa one village.”
The One Office service will facilitate high speed Internet access with the local sim card for all Celtel subscribers in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
Celtel International last year launched its borderless “One Network” service in East Africa, which is being enhanced to allow its travelling subscribers to access the Celtel Portal on the Internet in the same way they do in their home countries.
Ms Kositany said that, in addition to being able to move freely across geographical borders without having to pay roaming call surcharges or for incoming calls, “Celtel customers can now access the Internet just as easily and faster.”
She said, “Now we want to expand our One Network coverage to the whole of Africa and one of the top 10 mobile operators in the world by the year 2010.”
Celtel plans to include three more countries — Sudan, Malawi and Zambia — in its One Network after launching the second phase of One Network, which connects East and Central Africa.
Early this year, Celtel expanded One Network to include the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo and Gabon.
“Our development, however, does not stop here. We will continue to abide by our promise of connecting Africa like no other mobile phone company has been able to to date,” said Tito Alai, MTC group chief commercial officer.
Celtel is a fully-owned subsidiary of MTC Group. The company’s licences cover more than 400 million people, close to half of Africa’s population.
During the launch of the services in Dar es Salaam, Celtel Tanzania managing director Bashar Arafeh said, “We have a role to play in enhancing the ties that bind the people of the East African Community.”
Celtel operates in Malawi and Zambia on the group brand but as Mobitel in Sudan. This is in addition to its coverage in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
Celtel, which has invested more than $750 million in Africa, has more than 21 million subscribers and operates mobile cellular operations in 14 countries.
These countries are Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Congo Brazzaville, Sierra Leone and Zambia.
MTC is a leading provider of mobile telecommunications in the Middle East and Africa.
MTC employs 13,000 people providing a comprehensive range of mobile voice and data services to over 32 million active individual and business customers.
In the Middle East, the company operates in Kuwait and Bahrain under the brand name MTC-Vodafone, as Fastlink in Jordan, as MTC-Atheer in Iraq, as MTC-Touch in Lebanon and as Mobitel in Sudan.
Speaking to The EastAfrican in Dar es Salaam when launching the “One Office for East Africa” service, Celtel Tanzania Ltd marketing director Margaret Kositany said, “Our focus is to make Africa one village.”
The One Office service will facilitate high speed Internet access with the local sim card for all Celtel subscribers in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
Celtel International last year launched its borderless “One Network” service in East Africa, which is being enhanced to allow its travelling subscribers to access the Celtel Portal on the Internet in the same way they do in their home countries.
Ms Kositany said that, in addition to being able to move freely across geographical borders without having to pay roaming call surcharges or for incoming calls, “Celtel customers can now access the Internet just as easily and faster.”
She said, “Now we want to expand our One Network coverage to the whole of Africa and one of the top 10 mobile operators in the world by the year 2010.”
Celtel plans to include three more countries — Sudan, Malawi and Zambia — in its One Network after launching the second phase of One Network, which connects East and Central Africa.
Early this year, Celtel expanded One Network to include the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo and Gabon.
“Our development, however, does not stop here. We will continue to abide by our promise of connecting Africa like no other mobile phone company has been able to to date,” said Tito Alai, MTC group chief commercial officer.
Celtel is a fully-owned subsidiary of MTC Group. The company’s licences cover more than 400 million people, close to half of Africa’s population.
During the launch of the services in Dar es Salaam, Celtel Tanzania managing director Bashar Arafeh said, “We have a role to play in enhancing the ties that bind the people of the East African Community.”
Celtel operates in Malawi and Zambia on the group brand but as Mobitel in Sudan. This is in addition to its coverage in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
Celtel, which has invested more than $750 million in Africa, has more than 21 million subscribers and operates mobile cellular operations in 14 countries.
These countries are Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Congo Brazzaville, Sierra Leone and Zambia.
MTC is a leading provider of mobile telecommunications in the Middle East and Africa.
MTC employs 13,000 people providing a comprehensive range of mobile voice and data services to over 32 million active individual and business customers.
In the Middle East, the company operates in Kuwait and Bahrain under the brand name MTC-Vodafone, as Fastlink in Jordan, as MTC-Atheer in Iraq, as MTC-Touch in Lebanon and as Mobitel in Sudan.
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