Safaricom Ethiopia to register millionth customer next week

Safaricom is set to register its millionth customer in Ethiopia next week as it seeks a buoyant uptake of its recently launched commercial services in the country.

The operator had 180,000 customers in its first month of commercial operations in September with the number rising in multiples to 740,000 at the end of October.

During the launch, Safaricom unveiled pre-paid products including data, voice and SMS.

“Today we are sitting at around 933,000 customers. So our expectation is to have a million customers from next week,” Safaricom Ethiopia CEO Anwar Soussa said on Friday.

Safaricom has already launched in 16 cities including Ethiopia’s Capital Addis Ababa and has an average of 20,000 daily customers with 68,700 handsets sold in the period with the goal of reaching 25 cities by March next year.

Peter Ndegwa, Safaricom Plc CEO who is scheduled for a trip to Ethiopia on Monday to check on the progress of the network rollout predicts Safaricom Ethiopia will be as big as its Kenyan operation in 12 years.

The unit is expected to break even in its fourth year of operation.

Safaricom Ethiopia made revenues of Ksh.98.3 million in its first month of commercial operations in September.

The unit has been projected to reach its full momentum once the company is issued with a mobile-money license.

The issuance of the license currently pends Parliamentary approval after receiving the nod of the Cabinet.

“There are some elements that are still outstanding. Today as the law stands, a foreign operator is still not allowed to operate mobile financial services,” said Mr. Ndegwa.

“We are working with both the Ethiopian government and the Bank of Ethiopia to understand specific requirements and terms of the new license.”

During the first six months of the current fiscal year, Safaricom invested Ksh.19.5 billion as capital into the Ethiopia project.