MTN’s uphill battle in war-ravaged South Sudan
The IMF said the economy probably contracted as much as 6.9% in the 2015-16 fiscal year. The country has sub-Saharan Africa’s third-largest crude reserves and is pumping as little as 120,000 barrels per day. Juba — MTN Group’s South Sudan unit says it has lost about 10% of its subscribers since violence flared in July and half its transmission sites are offline. The subsidiary of Africa’s biggest cellphone company by sales is trying to ride out a three-year civil war in South Sudan. Most customers lost were in the southern region of Equatoria, which had been riven by insecurity in the aftermath of fighting in the capital, Juba, about 11 months ago, said Khumbulani Dhlomo, MTN South Sudan’s head of corporate services. The operator previously had about 1.2-million subscribers. "We have seen most customers either being displaced or leaving jobs or leaving the country," Dhlomo said in an interview in Juba. As the economic crisis caused by the war continues, "some just left using MTN bec...
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