Celtel board changes

The Shareholders meeting of Celtel International B.V. has appointed the following non-executive directors to the Board with immediate effect:

Lord Simon Cairns – Deputy Chairman and Senior Independent Director Lord Cairns has previously been Chairman of Actis Capital LLP, CDC Group plc, Commonwealth Business Council, the Overseas Development Institute and Allied Zurich. Lord Cairns was also Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of SG Warburg.

Andrew Dougal
Andrew Dougal was Chief Executive of Hanson Plc, the international building materials company, until 2002. Prior to the completion of its demerger process in 1997, he held a number of senior management positions within Hanson, the former international diversified industrial group, including Group Finance Director, Managing Director of ARC Southern and Finance Director of ARC Ltd. He is a non- executive director of BPB Plc and Taylor Woodrow Plc.

Naushad Merali
Naushad Merali's experience includes Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Sameer Group of Companies (SGC). SGC is a Kenyan conglomerate of companies involved in telecommunications, energy, manufacturing, agriculture, finance and general trading. SGC is a 40% shareholder in Celtel Kenya. Naushad also serves on several governmental and charitable bodies in Eastern Africa.

Wilfried Verstraete
Wilfried Verstraete has significant management experience in the telecommunications industry including the France Telecom Group, Chief Finance Officer of Mobistar, Chief Finance Officer of Wanadoo, Chief Finance Officer and member of the Board of Orange SA. Currently he is the Chief Executive Officer of Atradius, the Dutch credit insurance company. Wilfried will also chair the Audit Committee.

Mohamed Ibrahim, Celtel Chairman commented:
"I am delighted that executives Lord Cairns, Messrs Dougal, Merali and Verstraete are joining the Board. They are each of the highest calibre and bring an excellent combination of international commercial expertise - especially in Africa - as well as finance, corporate governance and telecoms experience. They will complement our already strong team.”

The full Board now consists of the Chairman, three executive directors and eight non-executive directors.

The executive directors are: Marten Pieters, Chief Executive Officer, Omari Issa, Chief Operating Officer and David Wilson, Chief Finance Officer.

The non-executive directors are H.E. Dr. Salim A. Salim, Jeremy Metcalfe, Felda Hardymon and Lord Prior, in addition to the new appointees Lord Simon Cairns, Andrew Dougal, Naushad Merali and Wilfried Verstraete.

For more details, please contact: Martin de Koning, Celtel Corporate Communications Director, +31 23 554 2671 or +31 6558 22409, deKoning.M@celtel.com