ExIm prepares US$100m loan for Africell to not buy Chinese gear: report

Details: John Tanner; Category: Investment; 11 September 2026; 3500 views

The US Export-Import Bank is reportedly set to award pan-African telecoms firm Africell a loan worth US$100 million as part of a move by the Trump administration to discourage it from buying network equipment from Chinese vendors like Huawei and ZTE.

According to a report from Reuters on Friday, citing a draft press release and “a person familiar with the matter”, the draft release says the loan will "enable Africell to invest in the latest mobile network technology from American and allied suppliers”.

Africell Holding Ltd CEO and company founder Ziad Dalloul is quoted in the press release saying, “We are pleased to be working with ExIm to introduce more trusted and secure communications infrastructure to our operating markets,” the report said.

In a July 2026 press release marking the USA's 250th anniversary, Africell described itself as “the only American-owned mobile network operator in Africa and has collaborated on the continent with US government arms and agencies including the White House, the State Department, the US Trade and Development Agency, and ExIm.”

The company serves 15 million customers across its mobile network operations in Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia and Sierra Leone.

The Trump administration has been pushing for Chinese telecoms technology, apps and carriers to be purged from infrastructure in the US and allied nations since President Donald Trump’s first term. The US has also sanctioned Huawei, claiming its tech can be used to help China spy on users – an accusation Huawei has consistently denied.

Huawei has had a strong presence on the African continent for years. Recent figures from Counterpoint Research put Huawei’s market share for 5G infrastructure in Africa at around 52%. The vendor has also credited since 2020 with having supplied at least 70% of 4G deployments across Sub-Saharan Africa.

ZTE has also been a key telecoms and ICT supplier in numerous African markets for at least a couple of decades.

As we went to post, the press release was scheduled to be issued later on Friday, according to Reuters.