Ethiopia expects second telecoms operator to start in Q1 next year

NAIROBI: Ethiopia expects its second telecoms provider to start operations in the first quarter of next year and is finalising preparations to issue it with a licence for mobile financial services, a senior government adviser said on Friday.

Kenya’s Safaricom, together with South Africa’s Vodacom, Britain’s Vodafone and Japan’s Sumitomo, paid $850 million for the operating licence earlier this year.

The consortium has just signed a deal with China’s Huawei for network infrastructure construction, Brook Taye, a senior finance ministry adviser, told an online conference.