(Adds Vodafone response)
LUSAKA, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Zambia's communications
regulator said on Thursday it had cancelled the licence for
Vodafone's local franchise holder, citing a lack of
technical and financial capacity.
Vodafone in 2016 licensed Afrimax, a telecommunications
service provider in sub-Saharan Africa to offer customers high
speed 4G data services using the Vodafone Zambia brand.
Vodafone said it had terminated the agreement with Afrimax
in April 2018, and had no ongoing relationship with the company.
No one at Afrimax was immediately available to comment.
The company, registered as Mobile Broadband Ltd, has lately
been experiencing operational problems and issued a statement in
July saying its shareholders had failed to recapitalise it.
Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority
said in a statement Vodafone Zambia would cease to operate from
Oct. 20.
"The Zambia Information and Communications Technology
Authority has cancelled network and service licences issued to
Mobile Broadband Limited trading as Vodafone Zambia Limited," it
said in a statement.
"The cancellation is on the grounds that Mobile Broadband
Limited has ceased to fulfil the eligibility requirements ... by
not being technically and financially capable of meeting the
obligations and terms and conditions of the licence."
(Reporting by Chris Mfula and Paul Sandle; Editing by David
Evans and Jane Merriman)