MAP > Internet Providers in Chad

During the last few years, Chad’s economy has majorly been dominated by the oil exports, as hence the economic growth has hugely been affected by the declining prices for the commodity on the international markets. The economic difficulties, combined with the sharp fall in the GDP that was recorded in the year 2017, have been exacerbated by the civil unrest as well as by the influx of the refugees from the neighboring countries. The declining revenue has encouraged government to attempt in renegotiating terms of licenses that only grants it at least 12.5% of the total revenue from the oil exports, while has gone on to endeavor to be able to access the oil money that is held in the escrow account to be able to set up by World Bank and an intended to be used in alleviating poverty.

This country has remained to be one of the least developed on the African continent so far on the continent, while the telecom infrastructure has been very poor, with the penetration rates in all the sectors that are fixed, mobile as well as the internet below the African averages. Nonetheless, despite the difficult operating conditions, the large scale poverty as well as the low spending power.

The country’s telecom market provides some potential for investors to be able to develop services, and this is given the low starting base. Tax on mobile operators has been increasing in stages in recent years, from 4% - 7% in the year 2016. In the year 2018, in January, it has increased again, to a close 9%. Of this, treasury received 4%, regulator 2.5%, information, and the (ADETIC) Communication Technologies Development, National School of Information and Communication Technologies (ENASTIC), 0.6% and the ANSCIE 0.4%. An extra 18% on the Excise duty got to be introduced in the year 2016 on the telecom services that have resulted in the lower usage among the subscribers as well as the negative impact on the operator revenue.

Two major operators namely Tigo Chad and the Airtel Chad have gone on and invested in the infrastructure as well as becoming main providers of the voice as well as the data services. But, difficult economic conditions of this country, that is compounded by the tax on the telecom service that has affected customer spend and then, later on, the operator revenue, having encouraged these players to be able to consider the exiting the market.