Safaricom Telecommunications Ethiopia appreciates government institutions for their support in registering the achievements which would have never been possible without their collaboration.
“The company’s commercial services would have never been possible without the support and collaboration of the government institutions in the country,” Safaricom Ethiopia CEO Wim Vanhelleputte told ENA.
The company has reached almost half of the Ethiopian population with its 4G mobile internet services in about two years after launching commercial operations in October 2022 with about 1,000 telecom towers which has tripled. “That means we are providing 4G mobile internet data services to almost 50 percent of the Ethiopian population,” said Wim.
“Out of the 3,000 towers, we have built 60 percent completely ourselves; and we have some passive infrastructure sharing agreement with Ethio Telecom for about 40 percent of our towers,” said Wim. “When we do infrastructure sharing, we still put our telecom equipment, but we are using towers from Ethio’s site with a sharing agreement.”
In terms of customers, Safaricom Ethiopia has reached almost 5 million active customers, as confirmed by Wim. “We are very hopeful that within less than a year, we will grow from 5 million to more than 10 million in the next 12 months. We’re in a very aggressive growth phase which is quite exciting,” he said.
Wim has also reaffirmed Safaricom’s commitment to contribute to digital Ethiopia. The company’s focus on digital innovation is evident in the launch of M-PESA to contribute to Ethiopia’s transition to a cashless society.
See also: Digital Ethiopia: Temesgen Tiruneh urges private sector leadership in national transformation
“One of the reasons we want to invest in Ethiopia is to contribute to the government agenda of digital Ethiopia,” he said. “The company will significantly contribute to transforming Ethiopia to a digital cashless society.”
While acknowledging challenges in accessing certain payment services, Wim expressed optimism about future expansion into areas like fuel and tax payments. “We are hopeful that we will be able, together with all the other commercial banks and digital payment platforms, to offer our payment services to a wide range of payment or payment solutions.”
ENA reports that Safaricom Ethiopia has further pledged to invest in expanding its network coverage to reach 80-90 percent of the population and introduce new digital solutions.
The company is also set to launch bank saving and lending products through M-PESA, Wim revealed.
See also: GSMA re-certifies Safaricom’s M-PESA
