African mobile operator Orange announces new plans to curb cybersecurity

Telecommunications company, Orange South Africa’s CEO Christel Heydemann has just announced a new strategic plan to 2030.

The strategic plan will refocus on Orange’s core telecom business, boost growth in the African continent and restructure its ailing enterprise business with a focus on cybersecurity.

According to Heydemann, the strategy will bring low single-digit growth annually in its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, which takes into account its leases, France’s largest mobile operator said in a statement Thursday.

Moneyweb said the company’s 2025 objectives include an increased discipline in investments and growth in organic cash flow from its telecom businesses to reach €4 billion ($4.3 billion), Orange said.

“Our aim is to achieve sustainable growth, particularly in cybersecurity, in Africa and in the Middle East,” Heydemann said in the statement.

The African mobile operator had already began a refocus on its core business after Heydemann took over last year.

The group started to look for new partners for its digital bank Orange Bank and signed a deal this year to sell its stake in content unit OCS to Canal+.

“Orange tower company Totem will be a key player of mobile towers consolidation in Europe, the carrier said, without other mentions of new M&A ambitions,” reports the website.

“In Africa and the Middle East, where Orange is present in 18 countries, the carrier eyes an average annual revenue growth of 7% between 2022 and 2025 and a “significant increase in profitability” over the period.”

BusinessTech Africa has discovered that Orange plans to raise its dividend floor to 72 cents for the 2023 financial year, and 75 cents for 2024, thus pending the approval of shareholders.