The rise and death of Uganda Telecom and the birth of the new UTCL, a new 100% state-owned telco. But has Gov’t really learnt or forgotten anything?

In the period leading to the 2011 fall and subsequent death of Libyan Leader, Col Muammar Muhammad al-Gaddafi in October 2011, Uganda Telecom was a promising company. The previously state-owned telco was spun-off Uganda Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (UPTC) in the 1999 unbundling that also created Post Bank Uganda and Posta Uganda Limited. In June 2000, the Government of Uganda (GoU) sold a 51% stake for USD33 million to Ucom, a consortium backed by Swiss-registered Telecel International, Germany’s Detecon and Orascom of Egypt. To catch up with the rest of the players at the time, Uganda Telecom in 2000 launched…