Ethiopia has ruled out allowing foreign telecom operators into its domestic market.
The position was stated by the CEO of the state landline telecom monopoly – Ethio Telecom – Mr Andualem Admassie.
He was speaking at The Economist Ethiopia Summit panel in the capital Addis Ababa this week.
“The answer to your question [whether] Ethiopia is planning to open up the telecom sector to foreign operates is No,” he told reporters.
“We won’t open the telecom sector to foreign companies because we need to use the money from the sector as an enabler of growth of the country.
We circulate the money in the economy. We don’t want to let in foreign operators and allow the profits from the sector leave the country,” he said.
Responding to the claim that the government did not want to let in foreign operators because of its intention to control the information outflow, the Mr Andualem denied it and insisted the reason was only for economic benefit.
Ethio Telecom’s gross profits reached 21.5 billion Birr (around $1 billion) in the 2014/15 budget year, a rise from 17.5 billion Birr in the previous year.
Currently it has some 60 million subscribers, which according to Mr Andualem it seeks to increase to 103 million subsribers by 2025.
He mentioned that the country is investing in both fibre and wireless technologies to improve Internet service delivery in Ethiopia. Presently there about 40 million mobile phone subscribers in the country.
Rafiah Ibrahim, the Middle East and North East Africa chief at Ericsson, which is one of the three foreign companies currently engaged in the infrastructure development of Ethiopia’s telecom sector, admitted that mobile phone penetration in Ethiopia has been growing fast.
We believe that every 10 per cent mobile penetration increase will result in one per cent GDP growth,” she said.
Along with Ericsson, two Chinese telecom companies – Huawei and ZTE – are also working on telecom infrastructure expansion in Ethiopia on contracts worth $1.6 billion in total.
Credit -today.ng/news
The position was stated by the CEO of the state landline telecom monopoly – Ethio Telecom – Mr Andualem Admassie.
He was speaking at The Economist Ethiopia Summit panel in the capital Addis Ababa this week.
“The answer to your question [whether] Ethiopia is planning to open up the telecom sector to foreign operates is No,” he told reporters.
“We won’t open the telecom sector to foreign companies because we need to use the money from the sector as an enabler of growth of the country.
We circulate the money in the economy. We don’t want to let in foreign operators and allow the profits from the sector leave the country,” he said.
Responding to the claim that the government did not want to let in foreign operators because of its intention to control the information outflow, the Mr Andualem denied it and insisted the reason was only for economic benefit.
Ethio Telecom’s gross profits reached 21.5 billion Birr (around $1 billion) in the 2014/15 budget year, a rise from 17.5 billion Birr in the previous year.
Currently it has some 60 million subscribers, which according to Mr Andualem it seeks to increase to 103 million subsribers by 2025.
He mentioned that the country is investing in both fibre and wireless technologies to improve Internet service delivery in Ethiopia. Presently there about 40 million mobile phone subscribers in the country.
Rafiah Ibrahim, the Middle East and North East Africa chief at Ericsson, which is one of the three foreign companies currently engaged in the infrastructure development of Ethiopia’s telecom sector, admitted that mobile phone penetration in Ethiopia has been growing fast.
We believe that every 10 per cent mobile penetration increase will result in one per cent GDP growth,” she said.
Along with Ericsson, two Chinese telecom companies – Huawei and ZTE – are also working on telecom infrastructure expansion in Ethiopia on contracts worth $1.6 billion in total.
Credit -today.ng/news
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