Safaricom Ethiopia, which earlier this month announced its commercial launch, expects to spend around USD500 million in its first year of operation, according to comments made to Business Daily Africa by Peter Ndegwa, CEO of the cellco’s major shareholder Kenya-based Safaricom.
In an interview the executive noted that to date the company has ‘put in CAPEX of approximately USD300 million,’ while when including the cost of its concession it has spent around USD1.2 billion so far on its entry into the Ethiopian telecoms market.
Also of note, Mr Ndegwa also confirmed that Safaricom Ethiopia had attracted ‘about 300,000 customers’ since launching, while saying that the new cellco expects to cover around a quarter of the population with its network by the end of April 2023, in line with an obligation in its concession.