Subscriber base grows to 78.3 million customers
Ethio telecom finishes the fiscal year with a nearly 21 percent growth in net profits, reporting more than 21.7 billion birr for 2023/24.
The state-owned giant saw its revenues grow by a similar amount to 93.7 billion birr, a whopping 16.7 billion more than it managed last year. Its executives, led by CEO Frehiwot Tamiru, say the figure is nearly four percent higher than what they had set out to achieve.
Competition from Safaricom Telecommunications Ethiopia appears to have had little effect on Ethio telecom’s growth, with the company reporting an 8.9 percent increase in its subscriber base to reach 78.3 million customers.
This includes 40.4 million mobile broadband, 75.8 million mobile voice, 747,000 fixed broadband, and 821,000 fixed voice users.
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“2023/24 marks the completion of the second year of our three-year LEAD Growth strategy. This year’s performance indicates the strategy is on the right track,” said Frehiwot.
The firm’s Interest, Tax, Depreciation & Amortization (EBITDA) reached 42.44 billion birr, and it generated 20.7 percent more foreign exchange than the year prior, bringing in a total of USD 198 million.
Its Telebirr mobile money platform saw 1.81 trillion birr in transactions during the fiscal year, largely aided by fuel payments. It brings the total transaction value for Telebirr up to 2.55 trillion birr since its launch in May 2021.
Ethio telecom reports lending 9.57 billion birr to 2.92 million customers through its Telebirr microlending facilities as of June 2024. It brings the total to 12.88 billion birr since it launched the service in August 2022. Microsaving through the app has reached 13.35 billion birr, with 9.7 billion birr reported for the 2023/24 fiscal year.
Telebirr has managed to garner 2.15 million users.
In the 2023/24 fiscal year alone, the state-owned enterprise paid 29.76 billion birr in taxes, 9.97 billion birr in government dividends, and 3.4 billion birr (equivalent to 58.45 billion USD) in foreign loans used for previously held telecom expansion projects through a vendor financing modality.
It reports the construction and commission of 150 new mobile towers in 81 woredas spread across 12 regional states and one city administration. An additional 63 mobile towers are in various stages of construction, and 2G and 3G network expansion has been carried out in 104 woredas this year, according to Ethio telecom.
The company is in the midst of carrying out a restoration scheme to repair infrastructure that was damaged as a result of armed conflict as well as to build new facilities and reopen service centers. Ethio telecom reports restoring 570 kilometers of fiber optic cable, 179 mobile sites across six regions, and renovating 16 service centers as part of the efforts.
Telebirr now facilitates payments for 129 government institutions and services, excluding fuel payments. These facilities have garnered a total of 63.9 million birr in transactions thus far, with 51 billion birr transacted over the 2023/24 fiscal year.
Close to 37 billion birr of the total is attributed to payments through the government’s electronic service provision (E-Government), with 30.5 billion Birr recorded for the just-ended year. Fuel payments account for 233 billion of all transactions through Telebirr.
The CEO noted that theft of telecom infrastructure, cyber attacks, and other security issues remain serious challenges for Ethio telecom.
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