Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn is reported to have confirmed that Ethio Telecom (formerly Ethiopia Telecom Corporation) will remain as the monopoly provider in all of the country’s telecoms sectors for the time being. According to Africa Review, speaking at the National Business Forum in Addis Ababa yesterday, Mr Hailemariam noted that the state-owned operator would not face competition in order to ensure it helps the government generate funds for a railway project. The PM was said to have claimed that were the telecoms sectors to be liberalised the state would be lose the ETB6 billion (USD316 million) per year that it currently gets from Ethio Telecom. With this revenue being used to finance the Ethiopia-Djibouti railway project, Mr Hailemariam noted: ‘You may think that the government can get money from taxation, but there is no way that we can generate this much from taxation … Therefore, the sector remains with us [the government] for the years to come.’
30 Jun 2013
