Safaricom Ethiopia PLC, the first private telecom operator in Ethiopia has got green light from the Government to commence mobile money services.
The announcement ids made this evening at the presence of Kenya’s new President William Ruto who visited Ethiopia today and met with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. “Joined Ethiopia Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in the launch of Safaricom in Ethiopia, Friendship Park, Addis Ababa; we congratulate Safaricom for being authorised to run mobile money in Ethiopia,” twitted President William Ruto.
“A supportive environment can build a competitive tech start-up ecosystem that generate life-changing innovations in Africa. Safaricom’s success story is such an enduring innovation of how tech revolution is bypassing traditional barriers to deliver sustainable prosperity,” he wrote.
THANK YOU ETHIOPIA!
🇪🇹🇪🇹🇪🇹 #SafaricomETLaunch #MPesaAfrica pic.twitter.com/TDfRHZRVtw— Safaricom Ethiopia (@SafaricomET) October 6, 2022
M-pesa is a popular money transferring technology in Kenya introduced by Safaricom, with billions of dollars of transactions every year.
In Ethiopia the telecom service provision was not open for foreigners and the state enterprise, Ethiopia Telecom has been the only telecom operator in the country for around a century. Meanwhile as a result of the economic and political reform Ethiopia has been implementing over the past four years, the telecom sector is opened for foreign investors.
As a result, about a year ago, a consortium of major global telecom operators led by Safaricom has secured a telecom operator license paying some $850 million. It is recalled that Safaricom Ethiopia has announced this morning the launching its service in Addis Ababa and six major cities in the country.
The Government of Ethiopia has also announced that it will issue one more private telecom license, and also partly privatize around 45 percent of Ethio Telecom in the coming years.
A supportive environment can build a competitive tech start-up ecosystem that generate life-changing innovations in Africa. Safaricom’s success story is such an enduring innovation of how tech revolution is bypassing traditional barriers to deliver sustainable prosperity. pic.twitter.com/tL6CwdA4ka
— William Samoei Ruto, PhD (@WilliamsRuto) October 6, 2022