- Ethio telecom, Ethiopia's state-owned telecommunications company, announced impressive results for the first half of the fiscal year, achieving 90.7% of its revenue target with a total of 61.9 billion Birr.
CEO Firehiwot Tameru highlighted the significant contributions of mobile data usage and international services to this growth.
Mobile data revenue saw a substantial 48.8% increase compared to the same period last year, while mobile voice services expanded to 83.6 billion minutes, a 12.7% rise. Revenue from international services reached 64.4 million USD, achieving 63.8% of the target.
Ethio telecom also reported significant subscriber growth, reaching 80.5 million total subscribers, achieving 100% of its target. This represents a 7.9% increase (5.9 million new subscribers) compared to the same period in the previous fiscal year.
The company added 5 million new telebirr customers, bringing the total to over 51.5 million, nearly reaching its target (99.8%).
Telebirr, Ethio telecom's mobile money service, facilitated over 1.03 trillion Birr in transactions during the first half of the fiscal year. Since its launch, telebirr has processed a remarkable 3.58 trillion birr in electronic money transactions, playing a key role in expanding financial inclusion through digital services.
Foreign exchange earnings also saw growth, reaching 72.6 million USD. Of this, 67.36 million USD came from international services, and 5.24 million USD was generated through telebirr's international remittance service.
The national digital registration system has registered 4.2 million customers in the first half of the year, averaging 27,000 registrations daily across 12 states , 2 city administrations, and over 275 regional cities and woredas. This progress is supported by 444 registration centers and 304 mobile teams.
Ethio telecom has expanded its service offerings to 171 local and international services. Network capacity was boosted by 4.6 million, increasing total mobile network capacity from 86.1 million to 90.7 million. To improve accessibility, 68 new service centers were opened, bringing the total to 1,000 (513 franchised and 487 company-owned).
The company demonstrated its commitment to social responsibility by contributing 287.2 million Birr, including 131.3 million Birr in-kind and 155.9 million Birr in cash, to various initiatives in education, healthcare, humanitarian aid, environmental protection, green development, and national projects.