Angola’s President Joao Lourenco has cancelled the country’s fourth mobile network operating licence award to local start-up Telstar Telecomunicacoes for non-compliance with certain procedures in the tender. The would-be new entrant – majority-owned by General Manuel Joao Carneiro – was named as the winner of the ‘Unified Global’ concession (permitting mobile/fixed voice/data and TV services) on 12 April but the process was annulled by the presidential intervention on 18 April.
President Lourenco has ordered the launch of a new call for tenders within a month, and called for greater transparency in the process, Reuters reported. A statement from the president’s office confirmed that the cancellation of Telstar’s award was due to ‘non-compliance with the terms of the procedure, the requirements relating to the balance sheet and profit and loss statements, and the statement of overall turnover for the last three years’.