Kenya’s largest mobile phone operator Safaricom is pinning its pan-African expansion plans on the Ethiopian market even as Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s administration wavers on opening up the economy to foreign investments.
The telco, which is listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE), is betting on the Ethiopian government’s planned privatisation of the state monopoly Ethio Telecom and the sale of two new telecom licences to gain a foothold in Africa’s fastest growing economy and the continent’s second most populous nation with more than 100 million people.
