The Ethiopian Communications Authority (ECA) has extended the deadline for suitors to submit pitches to enter the mobile money market and compete with incumbent Ethio Telecom, to 5th April 2021.
ECA kicked-off the process for submission of final applications in November 2020, with the licences eventually set to be awarded through a competitive bidding process. Terms were available to operators on request until mid-December 2020, with a date of 5th March 2021 initially set for completion of tender documents.
In June 2020, the authority announced initial expressions of interest had been received from 12 companies including MTN Group, Orange, Saudi Telecom Company, Etisalat and Global Partnership for Ethiopia: a consortium comprising Vodafone Group and its affiliates Safaricom and Vodacom.
Alongside issuing two new licences, authorities also plan to sell a stake in state-owned Ethio Telecom.
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