Ethiopia postpones plan to privatise state-own telecoms firm

A plan to partially privatise Ethiopia’s state-own Ethio Telecom has been put on ice.

The decision to postpone was taken because of “fast-moving macroeconomic changes” at home and abroad, the finance ministry said.

With 52 million subscribers recorded last year, Ethio Telecom has one of the largest mobile phone customer bases on the African continent.

It has been the sole provider of telecom services in Africa’s second most-populous state, though a consortium of international providers, led by Safaricom, is expected to join the market next month.