06 June 2023

Ethiopia will launch an international tender to award the country’s second private telecommunications license (License B), according to the Ethiopian Communication Authority (ECA).

Balcha Reba, managing director of ECA, said that the license will be awarded through a competitive bidding process with the same transparency as Safaricom’s license award process Ethiopia.

It was in November 2022 that the Ethiopian government relaunched the process of introducing a third telecommunications operator in Ethiopia at the same time as that of the partial privatisation of Ethio Telecom. This initiative is part of the process of liberalisation of the Ethiopian telecom market initiated in 2020. The first stage of liberalisation saw the consortium Global Partnership for Ethiopia (Safaricom Ethiopia) acquire the country’s first private telecom license.

The entry of a second private telecommunications operator should introduce more competition into the Ethiopian telecoms market, which has long been the preserve of Ethio Telecom. Since October 2022, the incumbent operator shares the market with Safaricom. The latter has recorded about 3 million subscribers after 7 months of activity. Its competitor had 68.9 million mobile subscribers as of 31 March.