According to our information, President Ismail Omar Guelleh is making progress on his plans to privatise Djibouti Telecom. As revealed previously by the Indian Ocean Newsletter (ION 1507), Salaam African Bank, whose managing director, Jama Hersi Abdi, is also the head of the Djiboutian subsidiary of the Somalian telephone company Telesom, is angling to take over the national telephone operator.
The attorney general Djama Souleiman Ali has also expressed his interest in Djibouti Telecom to the president. He is active in the business world and the financial sector, regularly representing Alexandra Natache Sasower on the board of Banque de l'industrie et de l'entreprise (BEI, previously Banque de dépôt et de crédit Djibouti) and also her mother Halimo Mohamed Dembil, who holds a 24% stake in BEI. According to our sources, three Chinese investors also visited the state telephone operator on 5 February and had talks with its managing director, Mohamed Assoweh Bouh. The Chinese state giant China Mobile Communications, the world's leading operator, has been working closely with Djibouti Telecom on telephone and data storage issues since the Chinese base was set up in the country (IOL 844).
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Privatisation of Djibouti Telecom in the pipeline
According to our information, President Ismail Omar Guelleh is making progress on his plans to privatise Djibouti Telecom. As revealed previously by the Indian Ocean Newsletter (ION 1507), Salaam African Bank, whose managing director, Jama Hersi Abdi