https://kenyanwallstreet...ast-and-central-africa/

Debra Mallowah has left Safaricom as Chief Business Development Officer to join Coca Cola as VP for East and Central Africa

Ethiopia May Scrap Telecom License Sale if Offers Are Too Low

Ethiopia has a set amount it expects to receive from the part-privatization of the country’s telecommunications industry and could scrap the process if bidders don’t meet the target.

Three independent teams have calculated the value of two new licenses that would compete with state monopoly Ethio Telecom, Eyob Tekalign, the state minister responsible for the privatization process, told reporters.That has given the government an amount it’s looking to raise from the sale, he said, without giving figures.

“If we get the value we expect from the bidding process, we will go ahead,” he said. “If not, we will have another look.”

His comments mark the first time an Ethiopian politician has publicly cast doubt over the much-anticipated liberalization of the telecom industry, a move that would jeopardize a broader privatization plan announced by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in mid-2018. The strategy had a range of goals:
--to shore up reserves of much-needed foreign exchange,
--pay down state debt,
--improve telecom service
--and create jobs.

International telecom operators have long coveted a foothold in Ethiopia, which has a population of more than 100 million and is seen as one of the world’s last major untapped markets. Interested parties include Vodafone Group Plc and its two African partners, Vodacom Group Ltd. and Safaricom Ltd., as well as MTN Group Ltd. and Orange SA. Alongside the two new licenses, a minority stake in Ethio Telecom is also up for sale.

International tower companies won’t be allowed to take part, Eyob confirmed this week, saying wireless operators can lease existing state-owned masts for the time being. “We shouldn’t have infrastructure that we have spent billions on going to waste,” he said.

Read more at: https://www.bloombergqui...e-if-offers-are-too-low
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Safaricom consortium and MTN Group are the only ones who submitted bids.
The rest shunned

https://www.ft.com/conte...-4c77-9066-bf2c5c45a82d

Ethiopia’s sale of two telecoms licences, billed by the government as the “deal of the century”, has flopped, dealing a blow to the push to market capitalism championed by Abiy Ahmed, the prime minister.

Two bidders put in offers for telecoms operating licences in the fast-growing but politically unstable east African country of 110m people, the biggest remaining telecoms monopoly in the world, the finance ministry said. The sale was supposed to be the centrepiece of the country’s privatisation drive.

“The telecoms bid is monumental in showing Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has remained consistent in the past three years in his vision of driving economic growth through technology,” said Billene Seyoum, Abiy’s spokesperson.

But potential participants from Europe, the Gulf, India and China stayed away. Some complained about the opacity and restrictive nature of a process that banned new participants from offering mobile-money services or bringing in specialised telecoms tower operators to build new infrastructure.

MTN, the South African operator, and a consortium of Kenya’s Safaricom, Vodafone and Vodacom bid for licences. The amount they offered is expected to be disclosed later this month.

Other companies that had shown initial interest, including Etisalat, Orange, Saudi Telecom Company, Axian and Telkom SA, did not bid for licences that the government had said could raise billions of dollars.

https://pbs.twimg.com/me...mat=jpg&name=medium

Safaricom qualifies as a bidder for the award of two full service telecommunication licenses.
Next step is the opening of financial offers where we will get to know how much they will pay for the license.