Zwede moves to liberalise telecoms industry
Publish date: 14 October 2019
Issue Number: 845
Diary: IBA Legalbrief Africa
Category: Ethiopia
Ethiopia's President Sahle-work Zewde has given much-awaited details of moves to liberalise the telecoms industry, saying two private firms would be given licenses to operate in the sector before the end of July 2020. BBC News reports that state owned-Ethio Telecom currently has a monopoly, being the only company to provide voice, SMS and data services. It has more than 41m customers in a country with a population of more than 100m. Multinational firms, including Safaricom, MTN Group, Orange and Vodafone, have all shown an interest in bidding for licences.
