With the launch of Safaricom Telecommunications Ethiopia on the 6th of October 2022 in Ethiopia’s capital of Addis Ababa the telecommunications giant; Safaricom, has now become the very first telecommunications company in the country which has a population of around 118 million.
The launch also had the President of the Republic of Kenya; William Ruto and the Prime Minister of Ethiopia; Abiy Ahmed present. This dissolves the previous monopoly held by Ethio Telecom which was 100 percent owned by the government of Ethiopia.
The Ethiopian government has begun its “Digital Ethiopia 2025” which is aimed at aiding the country in realizing the potential in its digital space and also utilize technology to build a more prosperous economy. The commencement of Safaricom Ethiopia’s services and mobile telecommunications network in Ethiopia, is one of the steps in that direction.
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The telecommunications company has also been given a unified telecommunications service license countrywide. This is will make it the first company in Ethiopia that will be launching a competitive mobile service over the government owned Ethio Telecom.
As of the time of putting this article together the 2G mobile service, 3G mobile service, 4G mobile service for Safaricom Ethiopia are now available in eleven (11) of the cities in Ethiopia. It’s capital; Addis Ababa and its second largest city; Dire Dawa are among the eleven (11) cities.
By April of 2023 Safaricom Ethiopia is looking to launch its services in twenty five (25) so as to fulfill the 25 percent population coverage requirement included in its license.
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According to reports Safaricom Ethiopia is looking to set up a completely owned mobile network. To that effect, it has created an interconnection agreement and an infrastructure sharing agreement with Ethio Telecom.
As it stands, Safaricom Ethiopia is owned by an international consortium. Said consortium includes Sumitomo Corporation which is one of the largest trading and business investment companies in the world, South-Western African mobile communications company; Vodacom Group, British multinational telecommunications company; Vodafone Group, the United Kingdom (UK)’s the development finance institution; British International Investment (BII) and Safaricom PLC.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Safaricom PLC; Peter Ndegwa stated that, “For two decades, Safaricom PLC has combined the power of technology and our innovative spirit to solve customer and societal challenges. Led by our Purpose to Transform Lives, we have deepened digital and financial inclusion in Kenya by connecting people to people, people to opportunities and people to information.”
He added that, “With these lessons and experiences, we look forward to positively impacting the people of Ethiopia with a sustainable and quality mobile network that will be a vital launch pad for nationwide digital telecommunications services to over 118 million Ethiopians.”
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Safaricom is currently the top telecommunications company in East Africa with an estimated economic value of 3.58 billion United States Dollars (which is around 433.4 billion Kenyan Shillings) in the twelve (13) months leading to March of 2021 and over 38 million customers.
The telecommunications company provides connectivity to its users through a broad variety of technologies; its 2G mobile service, 3G mobile service, 4G mobile service and 5G mobile which now cover a total of 99 percent of Kenya. It has a yearly revenue of more than 2.5 billion United States Dollars which is around 302.64 billion Kenyan Shillings.
The Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) listed telecommunications company runs mobile phone based money transfer service, payments and micro-financing service; M-Pesa. Founded in 2007, it is the biggest mobile payment system in the world and the biggest fintech in Africa.
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With its 28 million users being able to successfully borrow money, save money and also complete transactions, M-Pesa played a significant role in growing the financial inclusion rate in Kenya from 25 percent of the adult population to over 82 percent. It generates over 826 million United States Dollars which is around 100 billion Kenyan Shillings every year.
M-Pesa is the first ever mobile money transfer system in the world.
British multinational telecommunications company; Vodafone is one of the leading technology communications company in Europe and Africa. It currently has operations in a total of twenty one (21) countries and has partnerships with other telecommunications companies in 47 other countries.
As at the 30th of June 2022 Vodafone had over 22 million Television (TV) users, 28 million fixed broadband users, and 300 million mobile users.
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Vodafone is also a world leader in the Internet of Things (IoT) and so far, connects a total of around 160 million devices and platforms.
Vodacom is a South-Western African mobile communications company, that provides messages services, voice services, mobile services, data services, financial services, converged services, and enterprise computing services to a total of 123.7 million users including Safaricom users.
Vodacom which has its headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa, has operations in Kenya, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Lesotho and Mozambique. The mobile networks for Vodacom right now cover a population of more than 295.8 million people.
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With Vodacom Business Africa (VBA) Vodacom, now provides managed services to business in 47 countries. Vodafone has a 60.5 percent stake in Vodacom making it its majority owner. As stated earlier, Vodafone is one of the biggest communications companies in the world by revenue.
Sumitomo Corporation (“SC”) is a leading Fortune 500 global trading and business investment company in today’s world. It is located in 131 locations worldwide (66 countries and regions) with 20 of those in Japan.
The entire Sumitomo Corporation (“SC”) is made up of around 900 companies and more than 70,000 employees.
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Sumitomo Corporation (“SC”) Carrie’s our commodity transactions in all sectors through the use of global networks. It provides financing to users and acts as an organizer an coordinator for numerous projects.
It also invests in companies with the aim of promoting a larger potential for growth.
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The core business areas for Sumitomo Corporation (“SC”) include Metal Products;
Transportation and Building Systems; Infrastructure; Media and Digital; Related Life and Real Estate; and Mineral Resources, Energy, Chemicals and Electronics, as well as one initiative which is Energy Innovation.
British International Investment (BII) is the United Kingdom (UK)’s the development finance institution. It was previously known as the CDC Group.
Every year the British International Investment (BII) puts in between 1.5 billion British Pounds (which is around 204.2 billion Kenyan Shillings) and 2 billion British Pounds (which is around 272.84 billion Kenyan Shillings) towards supporting the United Kingdom (UK) government’s Clean Green initiative while also creating sustainable, productive and inclusive economies in markets.
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As at the time of putting this article together British International Investment (BII) had invested into more than 1,300 companies in emerging economies around the world and controls a total assets of 7.7 billion British Pounds which converts to a total of 1.05 trillion Kenyan Shillings in today’s exchange rate.
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