Ethiopia's first ICT industry zone, located in the Bole Lemi area, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia now under construction has attracted the interests of 15 companies with Tecno mobile, a Chinese company submitting designs of future plants to the the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MoCIT). Samsung, MTN, Tecno Mobile,  ZTE, Huawei, and others are their interests.

The construction of the ICT village, according to Peter Gatcot, minister of state in the MoCIT, is expected to be finalized this year. He told The Reporter that the construction was sluggish, forcing the ministry to spend much higher than the estimated initial budget. The ICT Village was set to cost some 1.2 billion birr when it was initiated three years ago.

Ethio-ICT Village is being constructed on a sprawling 200 hectares lot, with around 130 hectares dedicated to private companies’ investments. The remaining 70 hectares MoCIT will be devoted to buildings and infrastructures, with small and medium-sized businesses getting into the vicinity.  According to MoCIT, when the Village is completed, it will create 300 thousand job opportunities.

Peter also told The Reporter that, Ethiopia’s digital TV implementation process is to commence by the end of the year. He said that the documentation process is already set and the implementation will begin soon to change the  analogue TV installations of  Ethiopia into digital system.

Source: The Reporter