Safaricom is currently in talks with a number of possible backers to help it push into the newly-liberalised Ethiopian market. Speaking to the Business Daily newspaper, Safaricom’s interim CEO Michael Joseph said that the operator anticipated the Ethiopian licence fee and initial network deployment expenditure to exceed KES100 billion ($989.5 million). Last year, Kenyan media speculated that Safaricom could seek to enter the Ethiopian market by lodging a bid together with its largest private shareholder Vodacom Group. It now seems that the operator is now looking to form a wider consortium of backers, although Joseph did not identify any of the parties with which Safaricom is holding talks. Several international groups have expressed interest in entering the Ethiopian market subject to the licence terms.

Source: Ethiopian News February 18, 2020 15:22 UTC