Orange Telecom Project in Liberia (MIGA-14784)

Regions
  • Africa
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Countries
  • Liberia
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Financial Institutions
  • Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Active
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
B
Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."
Voting Date
Aug 1, 2023
Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.
Borrower
Orange Cote d'lvoire Participations, Orange Liberia
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Communications
  • Energy
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Guarantee
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 81.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Bank Documents
Government Documents
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ MIGA website

Updated in EWS Oct 31, 2023

Disclosed by Bank Sep 28, 2022

Contribute Information
Can you contribute information about this project?
Contact the EWS Team

Project Description
If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

As stated on the project disclosure page, on September 8, 2023 the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, a member of the World Bank Group issued a guarantee totaling US$81 million to Orange Cote d’Ivoire Participations to cover its equity investment (including future retained earnings) for the telecom operations and expansion of such operations by Orange Liberia, Inc, including the construction of telecom towers, installation of fiber optic cable, and provision of telecom services and mobile finance services. The MIGA guarantee will cover the risks of Expropriation and War and Civil Disturbance for a period of up to 8 years. 

Orange Liberia (formerly known as Cellcom Inc) is the Project Enterprise (PE) responsible for the provision of telecom services and investment for expansion of Orange telecom operations, which includes: (i) Operations of existing 388 telecom towers (approx. 68 telecom towers that had been constructed in 2021) ii) Construction of additional 444 telecom towers (from 2022-2025), (iii) Construction and installation of 850 km fiber optic cable (aerial and buried fiber optic cable installations) from 2022-2025 (earlier a total of 421 km had already been constructed as of end 2021) (iv) Information Technology and digital transformation (App, Web, Customer Relationship Management technology, Digital Inside, Micro-services Layer, Identity and Access Management, Content management software, workflow management, data, analysis, Orange Money Platform & Application Programming Interface management etc.) in Liberia.

The PE will be responsible for tower construction (including civil works, radio signal transmitters, transmission deployment tower, and transmission maintenance). Huawei and Nano technology are the EPC contractors responsible for the fiber optic cable construction. Sagemcom will be the EPC and Operations and Management (O&M) contractor responsible for the power supply to Orange towers, power maintenance and provision of security during construction and operations. Sagemcom is also an EPC & O&M contractor of an existing MIGA supported project in Liberia managing power deployment for Orange telecom towers.

The Project modernization program involves replacement of old power equipment with new, more efficient, and reliable equipment. The EPC and O&M contractor will deploy hybrid equipment such as solar photovoltaics, batteries, generator sets, and related electrical equipment for new and operational telecom sites owned by Orange in Liberia. In order to supply power to the towers, the EPC and O&M contractor will install solar photovoltaics powered batteries, generator sets with the aim of reducing diesel consumption by upgrading and replacing exiting batteries and gensets to energy efficient options and other electrical equipment on approximately 882 telecom sites.

Note that there is some discrepancy in the information provided by the MIGA. In the project brief, the guarantee is up to 8 years, while in the Environmental and Social Review Summary it is 9 years. The project approval dates also differ.

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.
Private Actors Description
A Private Actor is a non-governmental body or entity that is the borrower or client of a development project, which can include corporations, private equity and banks. This describes the private actors and their roles in relation to the project, when private actor information is disclosed or has been further researched.

As stated on the company's website, the Orange Côte d’Ivoire Group is a regional operator whose subsidiaries Orange Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Liberia are leaders in each of these markets. With more than 29 million customers with a turnover of CFAF 965 billion in 2022, the Orange Côte d’Ivoire Group boosts innovation in the telecoms sector in the three countries it covers.

As stated by Bloomberg, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. provides networking products and telecommunication solutions. The Company researches and develops internet access, transmission networks, servers, storage, security, and other networking products. Huawei Technologies also offers business consulting, network integration, assurance, managed, learning, global delivery, and other services.

Private Actor 1 Private Actor 1 Role Private Actor 1 Sector Relation Private Actor 2 Private Actor 2 Role Private Actor 2 Sector
- - - - Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. Contractor Communications
Groupe Orange Côte d’Ivoire Client Communications invests in Orange Liberia Subsidiary Communications
Orange S.A. Parent Company Communications owns Groupe Orange Côte d’Ivoire Client Communications

Contact Information
This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

Subsidiary and Investee - Orange Liberia:

Supu H. W. Cole Sr - Director of Legal Regulatory and Government Affairs and Chief compliance officer
Email: supu.colesr@orange.com
Address: Haile Selassie Avenue, Capitol Bye Pass Monrovia, Liberia

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

You can submit a request for information disclosure at: https://www.miga.org/contact/access_to_information

You can also request general information about MIGA and for information on guarantees by emailing: migainquiry@worldbank.org

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF IFC/MIGA

The Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who believe they are likely to be, or have been, adversely affected by an IFC or MIGA- financed project. If you submit a complaint to the CAO, they may assist you in resolving a dispute with the company and/or investigate to assess whether the IFC is following its own policies and procedures for preventing harm to people or the environment. If you want to submit a complaint electronically, you can email the CAO at CAO@worldbankgroup.org. You can learn more about the CAO and how to file a complaint at http://www.cao-ombudsman.org

How it works

How it works