A delegation from MTN Uganda led by CEO Wim Vanhelleputte is expected to meet President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni at State House Entebbe on Wednesday at 1pm.
The Wednesday meeting becomes the fourth since this year began as the telecom giant grapples with a regulatory limbo after failing to secure a working permit for close to a year.
MTN sought extension of 10 years after agreeing with the regulator to pay $58m which President Museveni later disallowed citing double standards from the Telecom saying it had drained Uganda’s economy by repatriating profits back to South Africa for 20 years it has been operating in Uganda.
MTN’s license expired in October 2019.
In fact Museveni turned furious to those government officials who allowed to enter a deal with MTN.
In his response, Frank Tumwebaze who was the presiding Minister (then) defended the $58m deal saying MTN has accepted to invested over $200m of infrastructure.
The President rejected this explanation insisting that the 20 years this telecom company has been existing in Uganda are enough to raise $100m.
Since then, MTN has been operating on tenterhooks having failed to secure the license.
And Wednesday, Mr Wim and his team were at State House to further lobby for the permit.
But sources at State House say the President has maintained his stand that, “either pay $100m or leave Uganda.”
The President, according to source is mad at MTN over its attempt to bribe government officials.
TrumpetNews has obtained information on how a chain of high-ranking officials of government had benefited from MTN promising to renew its permit.
We are still verifying this information and will soon publish it.
Asked about today’s meeting the telecom’s spokesperson Martin Sebuliba said he was unaware.
The corporation secretary Enid Edroma also declined to give us details saying she was in a meeting.
We understand MTN is keeping license renewal details as highly classified information.
The CEO Wim Vanhelleputte was still unavailable by the time of filing this report.
