Kenya’s Safaricom, partners aim to start Ethiopia operations in 2022

NAIROBI: A consortium led by Kenyan telecoms operator Safaricom aims to start operations in Ethiopia next year, it said on Monday, after winning a licence on Saturday.

The consortium, which also includes South Africa’s Vodacom and Britain’s Vodafone, won the licence with a bid of $850 million, government officials in Addis Ababa said on Saturday.

“The partners … will establish a new operating company in Ethiopia which aims to start providing telecommunication services from 2022,” they said in a joint statement.

Other partners in the consortium are British development finance agency CDC Group and Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation.