At a time when it celebrates its 40th anniversary, Sonatel displays solid results and a certain resilience in a regional stock market environment that remains cautious. In the first half of 2025, the telecoms group, active in Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and Sierra Leone, recorded a turnover of 960.2 billion FCFA (+9.4%), an EBITDAAL of 458 billion FCFA (+12.3%), representing a margin of 47.7%, and a net profit of 208.1 billion FCFA (+8%). These figures reflect a healthy trajectory, driven by sustained investments of 152.6 billion FCFA and consistent execution rigor.
On the strategic segments, the customer base reached 42.5 million subscribers, with 20.1 million active 4G users and 21.5 million high-speed broadband customers. Orange Money, one of the pillars of the economic model, has 12.6 million customers. Despite a slight decline in the mobile park due to strict enforcement of identification rules, the fundamentals remain robust. But behind these performances lies another reality, more political, more strategic, more uncertain.
On Thursday, July 24, Orange officially announced the appointment of Brelotte Ba as head of Sonatel, replacing Sékou Dramé, who had been in office since 2017. A change in leadership wanted, even imposed, by the French parent company, for at least two major reasons. The first, according to information from Jeune Afrique, is to be found in the rise of Wave in Senegal. The small American penguin has disrupted the mobile money ecosystem, forcing Orange to revise its offers downwards, impacting its margins on this key segment. While Orange Money increased by 16% in turnover in 2024 according to GCR Ratings, the loss of its historical monopoly remains a red line to erase. The appointment of Brelotte Ba therefore appears as a bet: to regain market share in mobile money, with a more offensive approach and better adapted to the new competitive landscape.
The second reason is more structural: the slowdown observed in the dynamics of Orange Senegal, long the group’s locomotive. While the consolidated results of the Sonatel Group remain flattering, the Senegalese segment, historically the most profitable, is starting to falter. The new management will have to inject a new strategic impetus and reinstall the lost agility. It’s up to Brelotte Ba to play the catalyst.
At the BRVM, these changes have not gone unnoticed. In the week of July 25, Sonatel’s share was trading around 19,000 FCFA, down 1.04% weekly. The BRVM 30 index fell by 0.29%, the Composite by 0.44%. Weak but revealing movements of a market in an observation phase. Sonatel, which accounts for nearly 35% of the total capitalization of the regional market, remains a defensive value, prized by institutional investors for its regular dividend – between 1,500 and 1,600 FCFA per share – and its financial stability. But the narrative of rent is starting to wear thin.
The pressure is all the stronger as the Senegalese political climate has changed. The arrival of a sovereigntist majority in power has revived the debate on economic sovereignty and a possible rebalancing of shareholding in strategic companies. Sonatel, implicitly targeted by this doctrine, could see the question of increased state participation or reaffirmed national capitalism resurface. Orange is closely following the case, measuring the symbolic and financial stakes of a possible turning point.
Added to this are diffuse social tensions, muted union demands, and a new CEO inheriting an ecosystem as performing as it is under pressure. At the same time, the group is strengthening its societal action: digital inclusion, connected schools, community health, renewable energies, equipment reconditioning, solar electrification – so many projects aligned with national policies and ESG criteria.
In short, Sonatel remains an anchor value in a volatile market. But to continue to deserve this place, it will have to do more than reassure. It will have to surprise, reinvent itself, accelerate, innovate. Because if shareholders have enjoyed a generous white bread for two decades, the bread of tomorrow will be earned through the sweat of renewal.
