This archive report was first published on 24 June 2021.
On June 25, 2021, Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa announced plans to second Kenyan staff to set up the company's operations in Ethiopia.
The move aims to help Safaricom gain market share in the country, where state-owned Ethio Telecom currently dominates the market.
According to Ndegwa, the company will initially rely on Kenyan expertise to establish a strong network and develop products, but will gradually reduce the number of expatriates and inject local talent into the workforce as the business grows.
"We will need to second several people to be able to inject the level of expertise, both on the technology side, but also on the commercial side," Ndegwa said. "But quickly (we will) start to embed local talent, to ensure that their flavour of the business will start being Ethiopian. We intend to make sure that long term that business is truly Ethiopian."
Safaricom's strategy in Ethiopia is to build a high-quality mobile network, unlike its competitors who focus on competing on price.
"The fundamental to our success in that market is building a great quality network. Once we do that, we believe that the digital services that we can offer to our customers will enable customer stickiness," said Safaricom chief finance officer Dilip Pal.
