President Uhuru Kenyatta has told Ethiopians that the entry of Kenya’s technology giant Safaricom will help transform their country by positively impacting most sectors of the 112 million population economy.
Using the example of Safaricom’s impact on the Kenyan economy over the years, President Kenyatta lauded Prime Minister Dr Abiy Ahmed and his administration for choosing to liberalize the country’s telecommunications sector.
“Today’s ceremony is the first step in an exciting and rewarding opportunity for Ethiopia. Kenya has seen the great gains and opportunities unleashed by Safaricom across the entirety of our socio-economic landscape.
“Ethiopia now stands at the cusp of making even greater strides in Safaricom’s areas of strength; which include digital presence, mobile money, telephony, data and fibre connectivity, and business solutions,” Kenyatta said.
The President spoke Tuesday evening in Addis Ababa during the issuance of an operation license to the Safaricom led Global Partnership for Ethiopia consortium which won a Kshs91.8 billion bid to operate in the country.
Global Partnership for Ethiopia which brings together Kenya’s Safaricom, South Africa’s Vodacom, UK’s Vodafone, British finance agency CDC Group, and Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation won the 15-year license in a competitive bidding process making it the first private telecoms player in the country.
With the issuance of the license, the consortium will officially start its operations in the Horn of Africa nation next year and is expected to expend over Kshs864 billion in ten years, making it the largest FDI in Ethiopia’s history.
At the historic agreement signing ceremony held at the iconic Friendship Park in Central Addis Ababa, the President told the Ethiopian Government to consider opening up opportunities for mobile money services as part of the telecommunications liberalization process.
“In Kenya, the success of M-PESA, Africa’s, if not global, first mobile money platform, is a classic example of what possibilities lie in mobile financial services, if fully exploited.
“Studies have shown that enhanced access to mobile financial services, have a great potential to reduce poverty as more people are enabled, easier and safer savings and in effect, greatly influencing the kind of choices they make in life,” President Kenyatta said.
He said mobile financial services are key in addressing various societal gaps particularly gender disparities as they open up opportunities for women to participate fully in economic development.
“Right from the villages to the cities, financial services have been made possible by mobile financial platform. Women, have particularly been empowered by these services, and are now able to participate meaningfully in the economy, alongside men. This is an area we must devote our collective efforts as we usher in the digital economy,” the President said.
Alongside provision of robust telephony services, President Kenyatta said the entry of Safaricom will help Ethiopia create over 1.5 million new job opportunities for its citizens.
On his part, Ethiopian Prime Minister said the award of the telecommunications license will catalyse inclusive prosperity.
Abiy said competition will create a vibrant telecommunications sector that will significantly contribute to the growth of the economy through creation of jobs and the rise of new MSMEs.
Other speakers at the colourful event were the Chief Executive Officers of Safaricom Peter Ndegwa, Ethiopian Communications Authority Bacha Reba and Vodafone South Africa Shameel Joosub.
President Kenyatta was accompanied by Cabinet Secretaries Raychelle Omamo (Foreign Affairs) and Joe Mucheru (ICT).
