Ethio Telecom’s Annual Revenue Up by 23% to 75.8 Billion Birr

ADDIS ABABA – State-owned Ethio Telecom has posted a 23.5% rise in annual revenue to 75.8 billion Birr during the June-ended fiscal year.

On Tuesday, CEO Frehiwot Tamiru told reporters the company achieved 103% of its revenue target for the year while taking its gross profit to 18.7 billion Birr.

The profit margin has also reached 25%, showing a growth of 109% compared to the last budget year.

The performance was reported a day after the authorities lifted a blockade of selected social media access in the country. The government blocked the platforms from 9 Feb 2023 following tensions caused by disagreement in Orthodox Tewahido Church.

Data and internet service users make up 33.9 million of Ethio Telecom customers whose total shows an 8% growth to 72 million in the past 12 months. These also include 69.5 million subscribers to mobile voice service and 618, 300 to fixed broadband.

Subscribers to Telebirr, the telco’s mobile financial service launched in May 2021, also reached 34.3 million and these customers made transactions worth 679.2 billion birr.

The company is currently the subject of an active privatization bid as the telecom business in the country of more than 115 million people attracts investors. In November, regulators revived a process to sell off the government’s 40% stake in Ethio Telecom and issue a second full telecom operator license to private investors.

The first operation license was awarded to a consortium led by Kenya’s Safaricom, Vodafone, and Japan’s Sumitomo in May 2022. The group, which paid $850 million for the license, is operating under Safaricom Ethiopia and broke Ethio Telecom’s monopoly when it launched commercial mobile network services in October.