The Trump administration announced Friday that Africell, the only American-owned telecommunications company operating in Africa, will receive a $99.6 million loan from the Export-Import Bank of the United States. The financing is designed to help the company compete with Chinese telecom giant Huawei, which currently controls roughly 52% of Africa’s 5G mobile data market, according to Breitbart News.
EXIM said the loan is intended to “boost the telecommunications sector in Angola and strengthen American technology leadership abroad” by helping Africell acquire state-of-the-art American and European mobile phone technology. The announcement frames the deal as part of a broader push to keep strategic communications infrastructure in friendly hands.
A company flying the flag
Africell CEO Ziad Dalloul welcomed the financing, saying the company’s expansion across Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, along with its longer-standing operations in Sierra Leone and The Gambia, illustrates what American investment can deliver on the continent.
“Africell’s fast growth in Angola and DRC, and our long-term market leadership in Sierra Leone and The Gambia demonstrate the unique benefits that high-class American technology, skills and investment can bring to Africa,” Dalloul said.
He added that the partnership with EXIM would introduce “more trusted communications infrastructure” to Africell’s markets. “In doing so, we are flying the flag for American technology leadership and creating secure pathways for future American and allied digital technologies to be deployed in sub-Saharan Africa, including in the Lobito Corridor region,” he said.
Shannon Nagy Cazeau, charge d’affaires of the U.S. Embassy to Angola and Sao Tome and Principe, framed the deal as mutually beneficial. “The quality and results achieved through partnerships with the United States and American companies speak for themselves,” she said. “This is a win for both our countries: American technology and a more prosperous, more connected Angola.”
The Huawei question
While none of the statements directly named China or Huawei, Reuters noted Friday that the Trump administration has been pursuing a “clean network” initiative aimed at removing Chinese telecom and network equipment from the United States and allied nations, with Huawei as the primary target.
Washington has imposed heavy sanctions on Huawei over allegations that the company spies on users — charges the firm denies. The U.S. government has pointed to Chinese law, which explicitly requires companies to hand over customer information when demanded by Chinese Communist intelligence services. Huawei has also been implicated in human rights abuses in China, including the surveillance and oppression of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang province.
Huawei’s footprint in Africa remains substantial. With about 52% of the continent’s 5G mobile data market, the company occupies a position the Trump administration is actively working to loosen. The EXIM loan to Africell represents one of the more concrete financial steps toward that goal.
A track record of repayment
This is not Africell’s first encounter with U.S. development financing. The company, founded in 2001 with a data center in Angola, received a $100 million loan in 2018 from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation — since renamed the International Development Finance Corporation. Africell used those funds to expand into the DRC, Gambia, and Sierra Leone, and ultimately repaid the loan three years ahead of schedule. That repayment history may have helped make the case for the new EXIM financing.
The loan arrives amid a widening push by Western governments to offer alternatives to Chinese telecommunications infrastructure across the developing world. For Africell, the capital infusion provides room to upgrade its networks with American and European equipment. For the Trump administration, it is a chance to demonstrate that U.S. financing can move at a pace competitive with Beijing’s state-backed lending — and to plant a flag in a region where Huawei has spent years building entrenched relationships.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2026/09/11/telecom-company-africa-gets-100-million-u-s-loan-to-compete-chinas-huawei/