The depreciation of the kwanza in recent times has made the costs of telecommunications companies in the country higher, as a large part of the suppliers are foreign, according to the speakers at a round table with the theme “The challenges of infrastructure, financing and new concepts digital”, in VI Telecom Forum of Jornal do Expansão.
For the panelists at the event, the instability of national fashion after the exchange rate flexibilization in 2018 not only increases the costs of telecommunications companies, but also conditions new investments in infrastructure and makes financing difficult. Therefore, to follow the digitalization process taking place around the world, players are looking for maneuvers while not adjusting prices.
According to the CEO of Unitel, Miguel Geraldes, the company has already been faced with the problem of the depreciation of the kwanza for five years, since part of the investments requires foreign capital and the suppliers are also foreigners, which forces the company to redo the calculations whenever the currency national depreciates.
"What happened to kwanza in one month, for us means completely redoing the math. Now it remains to be seen to what extent we can financially sustain this level, which is indeed a challenge“, said the manager.
The person responsible does not rule out the possibility of readjusting prices in the near future, as depreciation has been recurring.
"The telecommunications business across all operators in Angola was worth three billion dollars, today we are unable to reach one billion dollars. We need to know what we are talking about“, he reiterated.
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Gonçalo Farias, administrator of Africell, argues that there is still a lot to fix before moving forward with a possible rise in prices, since with the growing inflation that has been occurring, families' net incomes have also fallen.
"The net disposable income that is allocated to telecommunications consumption has been decreasing, therefore, people have less power to compare“He said.
Still in his approach, the manager reiterates that the budgets of telecommunications companies are made in such a way that there is capacity to absorb external shocks. And for there to be changes in the price there must be a consultation between the players and the regulator.
"You have to understand the cycles, talk to the regulator and make decisions. Basically, it's about leveling and being proportional to what's happening“, he argued.
Carlos Pinho, from Quality, understands that in addition to the instability of the kwanza, the current macroeconomic scenario conditions access to credit and the performance of companies in the sector. “Financing is a painful process, not because banks are not willing to finance when they realize that the project is solid and provides guarantees of fulfilling its obligations, but because of the economic challenge,” he said.
