Ethiopia opens tender process to sell second telecoms licence

NAIROBI: Ethiopia’s telecommunications regulator said on Tuesday it had invited a request for proposals for a second national telecoms licence, which was due to be issued in January 2022.

The nation of 110 million sold only one of two full-service licences on offer in May, citing a lower-than-expected price for the second one, which it now is offering again.

The licences are considered a big prize in the country’s push to liberalise the economy, which had been one of the world’s last major closed telecoms markets.

“Following our successful first license issuance earlier this year … now want to encourage more telecoms operators, of all sizes, to be part of this exciting opportunity,” Balcha Reba, director general of the Ethiopian Communications Agency (ECA), said in a statement.