Muhammad Yunus may bring reforms to Bangladesh telecoms, mobile operator says

VEON

13/08/2024 16:29

By Gianluca Lo Nostro and Olivier Sorgho
       Aug 13 (Reuters) - With Muhammad Yunus in charge,
Bangladesh may see much-needed reforms and investment in its
telecoms sector given the caretaker government leader's
knowledge of the industry, according to one of the country's
leading mobile operators.
    Yunus, who took over last Thursday, founded the Grameen Bank
that won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for pioneering the
microcredit movement. He is also a stakeholder in Grameenphone
 GRAE.DH , Bangladesh's leading telecom operator, jointly owned
by Yunus' non-profit Grameen Telecom and Norway's Telenor
 TEL.OL , which holds 55% of Grameenphone's shares.
    "I'm happy to see that the interim government leader is
someone who is very familiar with our industry, who is very
familiar with foreign direct investment and what international
investors actually expect," Kaan Terzioglu, head of mobile
operator Banglalink's parent company Veon  VON.AS , told
Reuters.
    Banglalink is the third-largest mobile operator in
Bangladesh. 
    Sabhanaz Rashid Diya, executive director at Tech Global
Institute, a tech policy and human rights non-profit, also said
Yunus' experience would be useful in bringing reforms to a
highly complex, competitive, and regulated telecom industry. 
    She also cited Yunus' work in advancing microfinancing as a
pathway to lift people out of poverty, but noted that
competition within traditional banking and mobile financial
services as well as reforms to the financial sector would have
to be addressed first.
    Another challenge for the next Bangladeshi government will
be reducing the significant unconnected population too.
    More than half of the South Asian country's 170-million
population has no access to a mobile network, while only a third
 can use mobile internet services, according to estimates by the
Global System for Mobile Communications Association.
    Mobile service taxes are also serving as a barrier to wider
internet access, especially for low-income households, it said
in a report.
    Yunus will not be directly responsible for overseeing
telecoms and information and communications technology. 
    On Friday, he appointed 26-year-old student Nahid Islam, who
spearheaded the protests that ousted Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina, as the new telecommunications minister.



 (Reporting by Gianluca Lo Nostro and Olivier Sorgho, additional
reporting by Fanny Potkin; editing by Milla Nissi and Tomasz
Janowski)
 ((gianluca.lonostro@thomsonreuters.com
Olivier.sorgho@thomsonreuters.com))