Though more modest than that of France (€14.27 billion), the combined turnover for Africa and the Middle East (€3.5 billion) of the French telecommunication group Orange is the one with the highest increase (+6.5%) on a basis consistent with that of 2014, at the end of the third quarter 2015.

On the third quarter, the turnover for this region was of €1.3 billion, representing an increase of 6.8% on the performance made on the same period in 2014. “In Africa and the Middle East, mobile services have increased by +8.2% during the 3^rd quarter after +6.7% during the 2^nd quarter, from Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Mali, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Guinea”, the group explains in a communiqué published on 22^nd October 2015.

Orange is linking this performance to an increase in its client base on the mobile segment which rose to 111.2 million at 30^th September 2015, an increase of +9.8% over a year on comparable basis representing +10.0 million additional clients. “The main countries contributing to the growth of the mobile client base are: Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Morocco, Mali, Cameroun and Guinea”, it added.

A region of high growth, the Africa and Middle East area also benefitted from some investments, thanks particularly to a decrease in general expenses. In concrete terms, this means an improvement in mobile services, with 3G now rolled out in all countries and 4G present in four countries (Mauritius, Botswana, Jordan and Morocco).