Ethiopia’s telecoms industry, serving a population of about 120 million, was considered a big prize when Abiy took over in 2018 and promised to liberalise the economy.
But recurring security problems, legislative changes and concern about the government’s commitment to opening up the tightly controlled economy have since deterred investors.
French telecoms firm Orange said in November that it had decided to withdraw from buying a stake of up to 45% in Ethio Telecom, which held a monopoly before a consortium led by Kenya’s Safaricom won the country’s first private telecoms licence and started commercial operations in 2022.
Abiy told a board meeting of government investment arm Ethiopian Investment Holdings on Tuesday that board members would “decide how to proceed regarding the second issue where we said we will sell 10% of Ethio Telecom’s shares to the public via the capital market,” according to a video clip of the meeting shared by state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting.
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