A US government agency has delayed the disbursement of a USD 500 million loan to finance the entry of a Safaricom-led consortium to the Ethiopian telecoms market, citing uncertainty over the unrest in the Tigray region, Business Daily reported. The US international Development Finance Corporation (DFC) said it was still weighing the escalation of armed conflict there before it could release the loan.
The DFC told the Business Daily that it is working closely with its partner agencies in the US government to monitor the situation in Tigray and will carefully consider its impact on any potential financing of the Vodafone consortium. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is the DFC Board chair, has said the current environment in Ethiopia is marked by "redible reports of armed forces committing acts of violence against civilians, including gender-based violence and other human rights abuses and atrocities.
The deepening conflict in Ethiopia could force the DFC to pause the investment and push the telecoms companies to source the cash elsewhere and at a greater cost. The Safaricom consortium had agreed to take the USD 500 million loan from the DFC to help with acquisition and development costs.
