Econet Global is keen to acquire a telecommunications licence in Ethiopia, which is opening up the industry to foreign investment for the first time, Bloomberg reported. A spokesman said Econet, through a number of its subsidiaries, is actively developing interests in Ethiopia. He said that given that there is a competitive process for new licences, it would not be appropriate at this stage to discuss Econet's positioning.
Ethiopia has announced plans to sell as much as 49 percent of state-owned monopoly Ethiopia Telecom and issue two new spectrum licences. Carriers including Orange, MTN Group and Vodacom Group have already shown interest in the nation of more than 100 million people, which has a relatively low level of data penetration and internet access.
Econet has operations in Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Burundi, and investments in Europe and South America. Econet's Liquid Telecoms, Africa’s biggest fibre company, has assets across the continent.
