Vodacom has spread its wings from the south to the north part of the continent, this Tuesday the South African company opened its first office in Ethiopia so as to gain a country which has a large market but the potential has not been very favorable.
The leading Telecommunication Company, Ethio Telcom which is also run by the state has captured quite a number of subscriptions; a total of 650 million by last year, which was an increase from 25 million in 2001 (according to the World Bank) and the number is still growing.
Romeo Kumalo, Vodacom Group’s CEO told Reuters in the Ethiopian capital, that Vodacom would apply for a license to provide value-added services.
“But more importantly we want to position ourselves so when the market opens and the government does decide to grant licenses in the consumer sector,” he said. “We would invest here tomorrow. Ethiopia is probably the most fantastic telecoms market on the continent. One operator, 80 million people, the economy growing at 7 percent – it’s a great market.”
Well, and it seems like the Ethiopian telecommunication market is still young and looking for growth as MTN Group opened office in the Capital and has already been given a similar license.
That’s not just about it with the telecommunication companies in Ethiopia as the country’s Ethiopian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology says more than 200 companies have applied to provide value added services.