December 11, 2024

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safaricom ethiopia

Safaricom Ethiopia Suffers a Loss of Ksh42 Billion

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Safaricom Ethiopia suffered a loss of Ksh42.09 Billion in the year ending March 2024. It was announced by the company on Thursday.

Safaricom Telecommunications Ethiopia P.L.C. (STE), previously known as Global Partnership for Ethiopia BV (GPE), is a subsidiary of a Kenyan telecom company. Safaricom invested US$850 million in Ethiopia in 2021 to start its operations in Ethiopian telecom sector. This investment made it the single largest foreign direct investment into Ethiopia. The firm rolled out telephony services in 2022.

In the year ending March 2024, Safaricom Kenya’s profits increased by 13.7% to Ksh84.74 billion, but a loss of Ksh42.09 billion from Safaricom Ethiopia caused the group’s overall earnings to drop to Ksh42.66 billion. This marks the fourth year in a row that the company’s total earnings have decreased.

Despite loss suffered by the company in Ethiopia, the CEO of Safaricom, Peter Ndegwa, claims that from financial year 2025 onwards, Ethiopia will start contributing significantly to the growth of the company and accelerate its bottom-line performance.

This month the company announced that it aimed to triple its telecom tower network in Ethiopia in the next three years by investing over USD 1.5 billion to improve coverage across the country.

According to the Chief Finance Officer of Safaricom, Dilip Pal, the operations of the company in Ethiopia are expected to break even by 2025 and start contributing to the overall profitability of the group.