The World Bank plans to invest US$200-million in Ethiopia’s telecommunications industry but wants the country’s government to open this market up to competition. Ousmane Dione, World Bank country director for Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan and Eritrea said the organisation will invest in Ethiopia’s digital economy and drive a new Digital Ethiopia Foundations project. He said...
Ethiopia’s decision to exclude mobile money from the terms of two new telecommunications licences cost the government about US$500-million (R7-billion) from bid levels, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said. The block imposed to allow the country to build its own expertise in phone-based financial technology will be lifted after about a year, Abiy said at the launch...
Ethio Telecom has taken a further step into the fintech market by launching its first mobile payment service today. The new service, Tele Birr, is a community-friendly and comprehensive mobile money transfer and trading system that aimed to boost financial service inclusion in the country. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, regional heads of state, and senior...
The Ministry of finance (MoF) has finalized the initial preparations to float an international tender to privatize 40 percent of the state owned telecom giant. Speaking to The Reporter, Minister of Finance, Ahmed Shide said that all the necessary enabling preparations have already been done in order to float 40 percent of the shares to telecom bidders....
The Ethiopian Communications Authority (ECA) has confirmed that the Global Partnership for Ethiopia consortium (represented by Vodacom, Vodafone, Safaricom and Sumitomo) and MTN have submitted their respective bids for available telecommunications licences. In a statement, the ECA announced close of bids submission period for the new nationwide services licences officially launched after publication of the...
Ethio Telecom, the – for now – monopoly telecommunications provider in Ethiopia, has announced the roll-out of a mobile money service. Called TeleBirr, it will be available to Ethio Telecom subscribers from May this year. Although the government is planning to allow two new operators to compete with Ethio Telecom, they won’t be permitted to...
Safaricom has made a formal bid to get a licence to operate in Ethiopia — one of the world’s last major closed telecoms markets, the company announced on Monday. In a notice to shareholders, the telco said it is submitting its proposal through a consortium it is leading with its parent firms Vodafone and Vodacom, British...
MTN Group confirms that it is participating with equity partners in a bid for a telecoms licence in Ethiopia, Africa’s second most-populous country. In a statement the operator described the region as representing “…. the last and largest telco liberalisation opportunity in the world.” The company stated that its participation is aligned with our strategy,...
Two companies that have submitted bids are South Africa’s MTN and a consortium of, Vodafone and Vodacom, Brook Taye, the senior advisor from the ministry of Finance. Ethiopia has received bids for two new telecoms operating licences that have advanced to the next stage to secure permission to operate in the Horn of Africa nation,...
When launching in a matter of weeks, Ethio Telecom’s clients will have the ease of making electronic payments from their mobile devices with Telebirr Ethiopia’s giant state-owned telecom service provider, Ethio Telecom, is launching a new mobile money service in the country. It is expected to be starting in the matter of weeks, according to...
