Vodacom’s CEO Shameel Joosub said Vodacom was considering entering Ethiopia with Safaricom, its Kenyan associate company. The CEO said Ethiopia was “probably the most attractive” potential new market for Vodacom.

“But the opportunities are not that clear yet — there are indications that Ethiopia will issue additional licenses, and potentially take in a strategic partner for the existing [government-owned] Ethio Telecom, but there’s nothing yet in terms of actual processes and so on,” the CEO said.

Vodacom opened an office in Ethiopia in 2013 and secured a value-added service license to provide all services other than standard voice calls.

Vodacom is a leading African communications company providing a wide range of communication services, including mobile voice, messaging, data, financial and converged services to over 109 million (including Safaricom) customers.
In addition to South Africa, Vodacom operates in Tanzania, the DRC, Mozambique, Lesotho and Kenya. Vodacom’s mobile networks cover a population of over 284 million people.

Through Vodacom Business Africa (VBA), the company offers business managed services to enterprises in 32 countries.

Vodacom is majority owned by Vodafone (60.5% holding), one of the world’s largest communications companies by revenue.

Source: Fana BC and Vodacom’s Official Website