The Ethiopian Communications Authority (ECA) said this morning that is launching what it called a “stakeholder consultation” about resuming the search for a new competitor. The ECA began this process in September 2021 but suspended it in December, saying that it had received “concerns and requests from several prospective bidders to delay the process”. The ECA is calling this full-service licence “licence B”, as the incumbent, Ethio Telecom, existed before the ECA and licence A went to the Safaricom-dominated Global Partnership for Ethiopia. The ECA licensed the Safaricom consortium, part-owned by Safaricom Kenya, Vodafone, Vodacom, Sumitomo and the UK government’s British International Investment, to compete with Ethio Telecom. The Ethiopian government was planning to sell a 40% stake in Ethio Telecom to a private-sector investor – with Orange often tipped as the likeliest candidate – but it put that on hold.

Source: Ethiopian News November 17, 2022 02:43 UTC