Overdue telephone bills reach a colossal N$400 million
Government ministries, hospitals, institutions of education, state-owned enterprises, embassies, construction companies and individual residential users, owe Telecom Namibia around N$400 million in unpaid bills.
Telecom Namibia’s Head of Communications, Oiva Angula last week issued a statement warning that on 27 September all overdue accounts will be suspended.
According to Angula, the overdue debt has been increasing in the past months since January 2017 and the average overdue days are more than 100 days which can not be sustained.
The national telecommunications operator said services to be affected cover mobile phones, landlines and data services.
“Customers failing to pay the bill after the stipulated date will have their services suspended temporarily. The service will be restored only after the bill is fully paid,” he added.
Meanwhile Angula said the suspension of services as a result of non-payment remains an agonising decision for Telecom Namibia.
“However we take solace in the fact that we spared no effort to collect outstanding debts amicably. All efforts and communication has been done in an attempt to manage this process given the country’s macro-economic state,” he said.
Telecom Namibia currently serves more than 396,000 (fixed and mobile) customers and runs the country’s largest Digital Telecommunication Network.
