(Ecofin Agency) - Tunisie Telecom secured a financing agreement for €100 million from the European Development Bank (EIB) on November 28, 2016. Related documents were initialed by Nizar Bouguila, CEO of the telecom operator, and the president of EIB, Werner Hoyer. The signing happened a day before the International Conference for Support to Economic, Social and Sustainable Development of Tunisia, TUNISIA 2020, which ends tomorrow, Nov. 30.

In a statement, Tunisie Telecom said it “plans to use EIB’s facility to develop its landline and mobile high speed networks by establishing 1,500 4G stations across the nation, and laying 2,000 km of fiber optic”. “Part of the financing will be spent to modernize the network, including the national transport network through the establishment of 100 Gbps and 400 Gbps links, and the metropolitan collection network, by implementing, for the first time ever, the C-WDW technology, to meet the growing demand for high speed networks,” the operator added.

According EIB’s CEO, the loan to Tunisie Telecom is to support the operator in the process it initiated in the past months to revitalize its business. “This facility is for us, more of a commitment that we will position ourselves more in Tunisia’s ICT market to improve internet across in the country, and in its remote areas particularly,” said Werner Hoyer.

It should be recalled that in July 2016, Tunisie Telecom initiated talks with EIB over a €105 million loan to successfully implement its new strategy which aims to make it a digital services provider.

Muriel Edjo