Ethiopia: Safaricom reaches 2.8 million subscribers
March 26th 2023
Safaricom officially launched operations in Ethiopia in October 2022, joining incumbent operator Ethio Telecom. A month later, the company announced that it had crossed the one million subscriber mark.
Safaricom totals 2.8 million subscribers about 5 months after launching its commercial activities in Ethiopia. This was revealed by Christopher Karanja, head of public relations for the telecom operator in an interview with Business Daily this week .
Safaricom Ethiopia has reached this figure by pursuing its strategy of gradual deployment in the country. The company has set itself the goal of covering 25 cities and 25% of the Ethiopian population by April 2023. In January, 21 cities were already covered by its network.
Although it is still far behind the incumbent operator Ethio Telecom, which has 70 million subscribers, the rapid adoption of its services testifies to the strong potential of the Ethiopian telecom market and the remaining room for manoeuvre. The country has a population of more than 120 million, and mobile penetration there was just 34% at the end of 2021, according to the Global Telephone Operators Association (GSMA).
Moreover, Safaricom Ethiopia is not yet running at full speed. The company is actively preparing to launch its M-Pesa mobile money service on the market. M-Pesa represents a major strategic challenge, as it has been the main driver of the hegemony that Safaricom has established in the Kenyan telecom market over the past few years.
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