Christopher Karanja, head of public relations, Safaricom, revealed that the company has reached 2.8 million subscribers roughly five months after the launch of its commercial operations in Ethiopia.
Safaricom Ethiopia achieved this figure by continuing its progressive rollout strategy in the country. The company has set a target of reaching 25 cities and 25% of the Ethiopian population by April 2023. As of January, 21 cities were already covered by its network.
While it still lags quite a distance behind incumbent Ethio Telecom, which has 70 million subscribers, the rapid adoption of Safaricom’s services is a testament to the strong potential of the Ethiopian telecom market and the room for growth that remains. The country has a population of more than 120 million, and mobile penetration was only 34% at the end of 2021, according to the GSMA.
Still, Safaricom Ethiopia is not yet operating at full capacity. The company is actively preparing to launch its M-Pesa mobile money service in the market. M-Pesa is a major strategic challenge, as it has been the main driver of Safaricom's hegemony in the Kenyan telecom market over the past few years.
