This archive report was first published on 18 November 2019.
Published on November 18, 2019, Safaricom has been forced into a joint bid for one of two Ethiopian telecoms licences next year due to the high entry costs that are expected to breach the Sh100 billion mark.
The Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed firm said that it will bid in partnership with South Africa’s Vodacom, which owns a 35 percent stake in Safaricom.
Acting Safaricom CEO Michael Joseph said that the high entry costs had prompted the joint bid as it seeks to replicate its Kenyan success in the neighbouring country.
"We anticipate that the investment in the network and the spectrum would be quite high and therefore there is an advantage in bidding together with our shareholder," said Mr Joseph in an interview with the Business Daily.
Players like Safaricom are attracted by the growth potential in the Ethiopian market, whose 100 million population offers the country a penetration of 44 percent.
The firm’s mobile money platform, M-Pesa, could transform the Ethiopian economy as it has done in Kenya, by allowing people to sidestep a rickety and inefficient banking system and send each other money and make payments at the touch of a button.
