Syed Ahmad Shah Sadaat

Syed Ahmad Shah Sadaat

Biography

Minister of Communications and Information Technology of Afghanistan

Syed Ahmad Shat Saadat was a member of the Cabinet of Ministers of Afghanistan under ex-President Ashraf Ghani. When he was Minister of Communications and IT in 2017, a major project was launched to lay almost 480 km of fiber optic network that would connect Afghanistan with China. Due to this project, the country expected to receive Internet services at lower prices, as well as earn up to $60 million a year, being a data guide from China to other countries. The project was funded by the World Bank, allocating about $50 million to the^[1]. As of the end of 2018, it was reported that the project was in the process of completion of^[2].

In 2020, analysts from ResearchAndMarkets.com noted the progress of Afghanistan in the deployment of fiber optic network throughout the country and its growth in Internet coverage, but at the same time the level of penetration of mobile Internet in the country at that time remained low. At that time, analysts predicted that by 2023 the level of penetration of mobile Internet in Afghanistan will be 30%^[3].

2020: Moving to Germany

According to Leipziger Volkszeitung, in 2020, the government of Ashraf Ghani forced him to resign after Saadat refused to transfer funding from the department headed by him in favor of a state strategy to fight the Taliban. As a result, the ex-minister moved to Germany, where he began a new life.

2021: Food delivery in Germany

As the German publication Leipziger Volkszeitung found out in August 2021, ex-Minister of Communications Syed Ahmad Shah Sadaat, who left Afghanistan for Germany in December 2020, makes his living in Leipzig by delivering food and drinks in the delivery service Lieferando^[4]. He said that when he ran out of savings after moving, he began to look for work.

At the same time, according to Sadaat, he dreams of one day settling in Telekom (a German telecommunications company, the largest in Europe and the third in the world).

A little earlier, the EHA News information resource published a photo of Sadaat on Twitter, reporting that the ex-Minister of Communications got a job in delivery in Germany.

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