Ethiopia receives two bids for two telecoms operating licences

Ethiopia has received two bids for two new telecoms operating licences that have advanced to the next stage to secure permission to operate in the Horn of Africa nation, said a senior advisor at the ministry of finance.

South Africa’s MTN has submitted one of the bids, while the other came from a consortium of Kenya’s Safaricom , Vodafone and Vodacom, Brook Taye, the senior advisor, told Reuters.

The United Kingdom’s CDC Group and Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation are also part of the consortium, the ministry of finance said in a tweet.

Brook told Reuters that it should not take more than a week for the winners of the licences to be announced.

The licences will pave the way to open up the 110 million people Horn-of-Africa nation’s telecoms industry, which is considered the big prize in the country’s push to liberalise the economy.