13 Feb 2023
Ethiopia’s government is looking to move forward with the partial privatisation of incumbent telecoms operator Ethio Telecom, and to that end has published a Request for Proposal (RfP) inviting ‘proposals from interested parties who can add value to the Company by bringing in best practices in terms of operations, infrastructure management and next generation technological capabilities’.
It is understood that the government is now offering a 45% stake in Ethio Telecom, with the Ministry of Finance (MoF) having confirmed that companies interested in obtaining the RfP will be required to pay a non-refundable fee of USD200,000. The MoF has set a deadline of 23 February 2023 for requests, while also confirming that the tender is open to any interested party, notably specifying that it is ‘not limited to those companies who indicated their interest by submitting an expression of interest’.
As previously reported by TeleGeography’s CommsUpdate, in November 2022 the MoF restarted the stalled process of offering a stake in Ethio Telecom, though at that time it said it was looking to engage with prospective bidders for a 40% stake in the telco. Prior to that, in March 2022 the MoF had revealed the partial privatisation process had been postponed ‘given the recent developments and fast-moving macroeconomic changes both globally and from a country perspective’.