Kenya Safaricom
Safaricom to Pay $850 Million for Ethiopian Operating Licence
Image sourced from Techweez Safaricom, alongside parent company Vodafone, has been awarded one operating licence by Ethiopia’s telecommunications regulator. The telco is expected to pay $850 million for the licence. In a tweet, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed says “The Council of Ministers has unanimously made a historic decision today allowing Ethiopian Communications Authority to grant a new nationwide telecom license to the Global Partnership for Ethiopia which offered the highest licensing fee and a very solid investment case.” According to Reuters, the consortium – led by Safaricom – plans to invest up to $8.5 billion in infrastructure as well as create up to one and a half million jobs. Ahmed adds, “with over $8 billion total investment, this will be the single largest FDI into Ethiop...
Safaricom Partners with Ericsson to Provide Gbps Backhaul Capacity in Kenya
Image sourced from Techweez Safaricom has chosen Ericsson to supply microwave solutions based on the E-band platform to achieve multi Gbps backhaul capacity for mobile broadband nationwide coverage in Kenya. The solution – MINI-LINK 6352 – is expected to offer high capacity, efficient use of spectrum, low-energy consumption and simplified operations and maintenance. With technological advances in microwave system software and new radio hardware, microwave transport capacity has moved from megabit-per-second capacity to gigabit-per-second capacity. By deploying Ericsson’s microwave solution, Safaricom will benefit from multi Gbps links as an alternative in areas where fibre is not viable. The links will assist in providing the much-needed capacity to assist the service provider to expand da...
Safaricom to Bid on Opportunity to Expand in Ethiopia
Image sourced from Techweez Safaricom is now one of six companies vying for the chance to claim one of two Ethiopian telecoms licences. This is one opportunity that the telco has been waiting on and one that might grant access to a licence in an economy with more than 100-million people. This comes after the Ethiopian Telecommunication Authority (ECA) issued a statement last year announcing that the country would be open to selling a 40% stake in the state-owned company. In response to this announcement, Safaricom and, its parent company, Vodacom both expressed their interest in buying a stake in Ethio Telecom. According to Bussiness Daily, the ECA has “whittled the list down from a consortium of 12 that had expressed interest in entering the country’s telecommunications market”. The conso...
Safaricom Appoints New Board Chairman
Sourced from CGTN. Safaricom has appointed Michael Joseph (the telco’s former CEO) as new board chairman, he succeeds Nicholas Ng’ang’a who has retired. Joseph will take up this position effective 1 August 2020. “Mr Ng’ang’a took up the leadership reins at a time when the government was starting the process of offering 25 per cent of its shares to the public through the Nairobi Securities Exchange in 2008. He has managed to grow shareholder value by 607 per cent since listing,” says Safaricom CEO, Peter Ndegwa. “At the time of his appointment as chairman, Safaricom had slightly over six million customers, 1,000 employees and only eight Safaricom shops across the country. Mr Ng’ang’a retires from the telco that now serves over 35.6 million customers, across 50 shops and hundreds of service ...
