Safaricom, the new operator in Ethiopia, is gearing up for its launch in competition with Ethio Telecom by asking for partners in areas from network equipment to content.
The company, a joint venture of Safaricom Kenya, Vodacom, Sumitomo and the UK government’s CDC funding group, wants bidders to submit proposals over the next few weeks.
The company, which has not yet announced the date for its start of service, has also moved into its new headquarters office (pictured) in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia.
Michael Joseph, founder of the Kenyan Safaricom operation, and Peter Ndegwa, its CEO, toured the new premises, along with Tenbite Ermias, who is MD and head of Africa at CDC.
They also visited the company’s new data centre in Kality, in the south of Addis Ababa. CTO Pedro Rabaçal, who was CTO at Vodacom Mozambique until September 2021, posted on Twitter: “Building our network is a key focus for Safaricom Ethiopia, and we are glad to be settling in and making progress.”
CEO Anwar Soussa, who was managing director of Vodacom’s operation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo until last year, tweeted #beautifulbeginnnings on his Twitter feed.
Safaricom specifically said it wants to talk to potential suppliers of audio visual equipment for its network operations centre (NOC) and systems for value-added services management and content aggregation. The deadlines for each category are 12 and 18 February respectively.