The Ethiopian government has licensed a consortium led by Kenya’s Safaricom, which also includes Britain’s Vodafone and South Africa’s Vodacom.
This opening of the telecom market is a beneficial operation for Ethiopia in financial terms, for employment and investment. The Safaricom consortium will spend $ 850 million on its license, a boon to the Treasury.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the consortium will provide approximately $ 8.5 million in investments and allow the provision of 4G and 5G Internet services. The state planned to grant two more licenses, but the operation failed due to the withdrawal of several groups that had originally expressed interest, including the French company Orange.
But the Ethiopian government’s desire to open up the internal telecom market does not end there. A second license would soon be offered and the public company Ethio Telecom intends to sell part of its capital to make the company more profitable.
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