Safaricom seeks $2b to bankroll Ethiopia operations

Addis Ababa, May 16, 2022 (FBC) – Kenya’s largest telco Safaricom is seeking to raise up to 2 billion USD from local banks and development finance institutions (DFI) in five years to fund its Ethiopian subsidiary, which is set to start commercial operations within the next seven months.

So far, the telco, which is listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange, has invested 540 million USD in Ethiopia including a licensing payment of 470 million USD.

Part of the proposed funding will also be raised internally and through rental financing from equipment vendors.

“We have managed to secure short term facility. We are also in discussions with local banks for a medium-term to long-term facility, which we are in very advanced stages of negotiations,” the telco’s chief finance officer Dilip Pal told reporters in Nairobi last week.

“You will also recall that when the Tigray crisis broke out in Ethiopia our discussion with the International Finance Corporation also stalled but these discussions have now resumed and we are progressing very well.”

Source: The East African