Safaricom Ethiopia Hosts the Democracy Affairs Standing Committee of the House of People’s Representatives

Nov 21 2024

Safaricom Ethiopia welcomed the Honorable Members of Parliament as the first private foreign company to be visited by a Standing Committee of the House of People’s Representatives (HPR), marking a significant milestone in Ethiopia’s private sector engagement with government stakeholders.

Our CEO, Wim Vanhelleputte, warmly received the delegation and provided an in depth briefing on our network roll out and expansion, achievements to date, people and organizational structure, commercial and financial performance, regulatory compliance and corporate social responsibility initiatives.

"We are honored to host the Democracy Affairs Standing Committee as it is a testament to the continued support Safaricom Ethiopia is receiving from the Ethiopian government. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the Ethiopian Communication Authority (ECA), the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE), and the Ministry of Finance for their unwavering and support."

Highlighting on our Half year performance (April to September 2024), Wim shared that Safaricom Ethiopia has recorded substantial growth in both mobile (GSM) and M-PESA services, reaching 46% of the population with 4G coverage and over 3,000 network sites deployed, 6.1 million 90-day active GSM subscribers, and 6.6GB average monthly usage per mobile data user.

Chairman of the Democracy Affairs Standing Committee, Honorable Ewinetu Alene, commended Safaricom Ethiopia’s remarkable achievements within the past three years, emphasizing the key role it plays in realizing digital Ethiopia and the economy in general. "The standing committee is here because Safaricom Ethiopia operates under the regulation of the Ethiopian Communications Authority (ECA), and it is our duty to oversight companies operating under the ECA. We are happy with what we saw in Safaricom Ethiopia and it is historic for a standing committee to come to a private company for oversight.”

Safaricom Ethiopia remains committed to the mission of transforming lives through its innovative telecom and financial services, supporting Ethiopia’s digital and economic development.

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