Safaricom Ethiopia is taking a big step towards local sourcing by incorporating telecom towers manufactured in Ethiopia into its network expansion plans. The company has partnered with Woda Metals, the nation's first producer of telecom towers.
Safaricom Ethiopia announced that it is building its first data center in Addis Ababa at a cost of $100 million. "In our first year, we have $300 million worth of investment that is going in, [out of] which the data center is just one of the many building blocks," Pedro Rabacal, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Safaricom Ethiopia, said.
Safaricom Ethiopia announced a hefty investment of USD 1.5 billion to build 5,000 new telecom towers across the country over the next three years. This ambitious plan aims to significantly improve network infrastructure and connectivity for millions of Ethiopians.
Safaricom Ethiopia has reported a 270% increase in annual revenue, reaching Birr 7.2 billionfor the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025, up from Birr 2.7 billion the previous year. Despite the revenue growth, the company remains in its investment phase, recording an operating expense of Birr 47 billion.
Safaricom Ethiopia PLC, previously dubbed Global Partnership for Ethiopia, announced it will launch its commercial operations in March 2022, using the '07' mobile number prefix, the same prefix it uses in Kenya, with '09' reserved for Ethio Telecom.
