Telecom Namibia, CENORED ink agreement for several new joint research initiatives
Telecom Namibia and the Central North Regional Electricity Distributor (CENORED) on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to commemorate the beginning of a journey of cooperation in areas that embrace Namibia’s future for digital transformation and innovation.
The MoU’s goal is to define areas of cooperation between Telecom and CENORED in providing consistent and dependable power and related services. As such, the MoU will enable Telecom to provide Namibia with reliable and consistent telecommunications services, with minimal to no power outages.
Telecom Namibia was represented at the signing event by its Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Stanley Shanapinda, while CENORED was represented by Acting Chief Executive, Mr. Fessor Mbango, at the Telecom Namibia Head Office in Windhoek on Tuesday, 20 June.
According to the CENORED Chief Executive, “The signing of this MoU between our two institutions today symbolizes a partnership which I strongly believe will lead to many new joint research initiatives that produce new synergies in the years ahead.”
Mbango added that requests to reconsider how CENORED does business in the ever-changing competitive and modern business environments are emerging. As a result, CENORED Management maintained it keeps aware that technological progress offers potential for digitalization and automation of business processes, which improve efficiency and lower operating costs.
Additionally, he emphasized that, as a company, they are constantly under pressure to keep pace with technology.
Electrification has a wide range of social and economic benefits and is a vital requirement for living standards and equality, according to them. These aims help to achieve high-level national objectives and contribute significantly to the country’s industrialization. Therefore, they indicated the need to strengthen and promote public-private partnerships, underscoring the primary goal of better understanding their different contributions to common development objectives.
“In recent years, the growth of each course requires continuous enhancement of technological capacity and capability to serve their customers first, fast, efficiently, and effectively. What is increasingly clear is that, as an organization, we cannot continue to rely on tariff increases to ensure our company maintains a healthy position.
“This is not sustainable as particularly, our large customers will find alternative supply sources to meet their needs. On 01 September 2019, the revised market rules for the Electricity Supply Industry were implemented, following Cabinet approval. The Modified Single Buyer market model will bring the opportunity for the Reds to find alternative supply sources to ensure we maintain tariffs that are competitive and sustainable for our customers. There is a requirement to align ourselves with strategic partners such as Telecom Namibia to help us enhance service delivery, meeting our customer’s expectations through technological advancements,” Mbango noted.
Meanwhile, Shanapinda remarked that this cooperation would enable effective and efficient service delivery to public and private institutions, as this strategic relationship will facilitate the provision of digital solutions and innovation.
The Telecom Chief Executive further expressed his satisfaction with the leadership that CENORED has shown recently concerning reducing electricity downtimes that affect Telecom’s services.
“As we transition towards the 4th Industrial revolution, Telecom remains committed to being at the forefront of the technology frontier in enabling Namibia to reach its digital economy growth needs, to both public and private institutions. The MoU will serve as a framework and guide on how both parties will jointly identify areas of cooperation and development, especially in the areas of Digital Transformation, as it relates to ensuring reliable electricity connectivity.
“We are happy to announce that since January this year, when the downtime was at its highest at 25,124 minutes, it has dropped in April to downtime of 4,055 minutes. With this MoU, we expect to reduce the downtime even further,” according to Shanapinda.
Furthermore, he congratulated the CENORED leadership in this regard, urging the other REDS, Regional Councils, municipalities, and village councils to follow in the footsteps of the CENORED and also noted that he is pleased that CENORED has seriously taken its obligations and has made payments to NamPower despite its challenges to ensure stable electricity supply.
Accordingly, CENORED guarantees that, as a result of this collaboration, Telecom will continue to improve customer service and satisfaction by providing stable electrical and related services, quick response to outages, and feedback within reasonable expedited time frames to restore services.
“CENORED will also provide electricity to identified Telecom solar sites at a discounted rate and provide access to dark fiber as an alternative to Telecom’s network on various routes, ensuring redundancy for telecommunications services over CENORED’s optical ground wire (or OPGW). The sharing of public infrastructure is the cornerstone of the Harambee Prosperity Plan II (HPPII), and the two entities are delivering on that mandate with this MoU,” according to a joint media release.
In exchange, Telecom will supply CENORED with digital and innovative telecommunication solutions on mutually agreed-upon terms and conditions and will investigate the feasibility of installing aerial fiber in areas with CENORED infrastructure.
