Kenya's Safaricom bids for Ethiopia telecom licence

Safaricom's headquarters in Nairobi. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Safaricom has made a formal bid to get a licence to operate in Ethiopia — one of the world's last major closed telecoms markets, the company announced on Monday.

In a notice to shareholders, the telco said it is submitting its proposal through a consortium it is leading with its parent firms Vodafone and Vodacom, British development finance agency CDC Group and Japan's Sumitomo Corporation.