Addis Ababa, January 12, 2021 (FBC) – Huawei Technologies is positioning itself to get more business in Ethiopia, as the East African economy opens up its telecommunications sector.
“Ethiopia is rising and becoming much more important for the future,” Loïse Tamalgo, Huawei’s head of public relations for 22 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, said. “Our strategy is very simple.”
The company plans to leverage its position as a vendor of the state-owned monopoly Ethio Telecom to bid for opportunities in the country, he said.
Liberalisation of the telecom industry is at the forefront of what Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said in 2018 would be a wide-ranging privatisation programme.
The plan was intended to bring in much-needed foreign exchange and boost the economy, while improving connectivity across country.
The country is seeking to double its mobile towers to about 14,000, which would require an investment of up to $1.1 billion, and build out its fibre-optic network from less than 30,000km now, according to the Ethiopian Communications Authority.
It also plans to sell a 40% stake in Ethio Telecom and issue two new telecom licences in 2022.
Vodacom Group, a subsidiary of UK’s Vodafone Group, is among carriers planning to bid for the licences. MTN Group, Africa’s largest career by subscribers, and Paris-based Orange have also expressed interest in entering Africa’s second-most populous country, with more than 100-million people.
Last week, the US International Development Finance Corporation approved a loan of as much as $500m to a Vodafone-led consortium seeking to start an Ethiopian mobile phone network operator.
The facility will finance the design, development and operation of a new private mobile network provider and the acquisition of a licence.
China’s biggest tech firm has a long-term approach to Africa, which currently represents 5% of its global revenue, Tamalgo said.
Other priority markets for the company on the continent are Ivory Coast, Senegal, DRC and Cameroon.
Source: businesslive