- Safaricom has received the green signal to go ahead with the launch of the mobile money service this year despite the suspension of bidding for a second telecoms operator permit in Ethiopia.
- It is reported that Ethiopia is getting legal changes to allow the central bank to issue Safaricom with a licence for mobile financial services.
Safaricom has received the green signal to go ahead with the launch of the mobile money service this year despite the suspension of bidding for a second telecoms operator permit in Ethiopia. It is reported that Ethiopia is getting legal changes to allow the central bank to issue Safaricom with a licence for mobile financial services.
The earlier proposal was to upgrade Safaricom Licence of last year to include mobile financial service after completing bidding for its second telecoms operator permit. Dr Eyob Tekalgn Tolina, the State Minister of Ethiopia’s Ministry of Finance, said that it has delinked the M-Pesa permit from the second operator’s licence. The Minister said the M-Pesa license will be given by May. The Minister added that the second operator license was delayed in view of the current situation which may not attract the right competitors. However the Ethiopian government will stand by its earlier commitment to Safaricom to give financial services license
Until last year, State monopoly Ethio Telecom was the single player in the Ethiopian telecom sector. In a bid to liberalise the sector and build a digital economy, it invited bids last year. It sold only one of two full-service licences on offer in May, citing a lower-than-expected price for the second one. A consortium led by Safaricom secured the first licence. With a subscriber base of 50.7 million, Ethiopia is a very lucrative mobile money market. In May last year State monopoly Ethio Telecom, introduced a new mobile financial service called Telebirr that fetched 4 million users within weeks.
Safaricom pioneered M-Pesa in 2007, giving people an alternative to banks. M-Pesa has the potential to transform Ethiopia’s economy, as it has done in Kenya, by allowing people to sidestep an inefficient banking system and transfer money.
