The Board of Directors of Zain has finalized agreements to sell off its African unit, ‘Zain Africa BV’ to Bharti Airtel Limited. They met in Kuwait on Wednesday 24 March 2010, to review the latest developments and negotiations related to this matter. According to a statement issued Thursday, the agreement is expected to be signed in the coming days. Upon signing, the parties will move towards getting any required approvals. It has been reported that Bharti has already secured the entire financing requirement of USD 8.3 billion for this transaction. However, the sale of ‘Zain Africa BV’ does not include Zain’s operation in Sudan or its investment in Morocco. It is unclear at this point whether the transaction will result in a name change for subscribers of the mobile company here in Ghana and the other African countries. Zain has more than 40 million subscribers in Africa, about 62 percent of its client base and more than half of its $7.4 billion of annual sales in 2008 came from Africa, according to Bloomberg data. By: Dorcas Efe Mensah/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana