- Safaricom has disclosed that it is planning to cut its bid price for the Ethiopian market licence after the Ethiopian government’s decision to allow only the locally owned non-financial institutions to offer mobile money services.
- License without mobile money will be hurting its profitability and delaying the period of recouping its investment.
Safaricom has disclosed that it is planning to cut its bid price for the Ethiopian market licence after the Ethiopian government’s decision to allow only the locally owned non-financial institutions to offer mobile money services. It is of the view that a license without mobile money will be hurting its profitability and delaying the period of recouping its investment.
The telco’s investment interest in Ethiopia, a market of 108 million people and about 50 million phone subscribers would have been further enhanced, had the Ethiopian government allowed it to operate its mobile money platform M-Pesa. Therefore, the company indicated that only a licence with mobile money would enhance bid price.
 The Ethiopian Communications Authority (ECA) disclosed received 12 expressions of interest for the issuance of two new full-service telecommunications licenses. Safaricom had made the bid through a consortium that includes its parent companies Vodafone and Vodacom. The other telcos that had applied for the licence are Liquid Telecom, Etisalat, Snail Mobile, Axian, MTN, Orange, Saudi Telecom Company and Telkom.
