ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Ethiopian state-owned telecoms firm Ethio Telecom recorded half-year revenue of 61.9 billion birr ($491.57 million), up more than 40% on the same period a year earlier, its chief executive said on Wednesday.
The government is looking to divest its majority stake in Ethio Telecom as part of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s push to open up the country to greater private investment.
In October Ethio Telecom launched an initial public offering to sell a 10% stake, while the government plans to later sell a further 45% stake to investors.
CEO Frehiwot Tamiru told reporters that earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the half year to end-December rose more than 60%, to 32.8 billion birr.
Subscribers to Ethio Telecom’s mobile money transfer service Telebirr grew to over 51 million, handling transactions worth 1 trillion birr, Frehiwot said. A year earlier the service had 41 million users and handled transactions worth roughly 910 billion birr.
Ethio Telecom, a former monopoly, competes with Safaricom Ethiopia, which launched in 2022 after winning the country’s first private telecoms licence.
($1 = 125.9243 birr)
(Reporting by Dawit Endeshaw; Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Alexander Winning)
