State-run Ethio Telecom, which invited private investors to buy a stake in it over the past few months, reported an 18.4% rise in full-year revenue to end-June to 56.5 billion birrs ($1.29 billion).
The CEO Frehiwot Tamiru said the company recorded a 22% jump in subscribers to 56.2 million. Additionally, 6.58 million customers had signed up to use its mobile money service, known as Telebirr, which the telecommunication company launched in May.
Telebirr is a platform that allows users to send and receive money, deposit or take out cash at appointed agents, pay bills to merchants and receive cash sent from abroad.
The company reported 56.5 Billion birrs revenue, which is an 18.4% rise from the revenue collected during the same period in the previous year. The company attributed the rise to network optimization works to enhance customer experience, and satisfaction and offering 34 new and 28 revamped local and international products and services.
Speaking on the results, the CEO Frehiwot Tamiru attributed the good results to the expansion of 4G services outside the capital Addis Ababa despite the challenges faced due in the country.
“When we started the budget year the internet was shutdown and we lost billions because of this. And the crisis in the northern region [Tigray] was also something we didn’t anticipate,” Frehiwot Tamiru CEO Ethio telecom
The telecoms business in Ethiopia has attracted investors launched a tendering process for the proposed sell-off of a 40% stake in Ethio Telecom to private investors, part of the government’s broader plan to open up the Horn of Africa country’s telecoms sector. However, some investors have been put off by the slow pace of economic change and risks linked to ethnic unrest and a conflict in the Tigray region.
Recently, Ethio telecom awarded an operating licence to a consortium led by Safaricom, Vodafone and Japan’s Sumitomo. The group paid $850 million for the licence.
