Business Insider Africa gathered that this is Safaricom’s first infrastructure deal in the Horn of African country.
The deal will enable Safaricom to share dark fibre optic infrastructure with Ethiopia’s state-owned power utility company — Ethiopian Electric Power.
The CEO of Safaricom Ethiopia, Mr Anwar Soussa, has expressed gratitude to the Ethiopian Government for the deal.
As part of its preparations to launch full-scale operations in the Horn of Africa soon, Kenya’s leading telecom operator Safaricom has signed a 5-year infrastructure lease agreement with Ethiopian Electric Power.
Business Insider Africa understands that this is Safaricom’s first infrastructure deal in Ethiopia. The deal was signed over the weekend between the CEO of Safaricom Ethiopia Mr Anwar Soussa, and the CEO of Ethiopian Electric Power Mr Ashebir Balcha.
Following this agreement, Safaricom will now share dark fibre optic infrastructure with the state-owned power utility company. Mr Soussa expressed gratitude to Ethiopia’s willingness to collaborate in this aspect, promising that it would be a win-win arrangement for all parties involved.
“We are grateful for the spirit of cooperation from EEP on the win-win partnership to support our contributions to the digital transformation of Ethiopia. Such infrastructure sharing agreements will enable us to fulfil our commitment to transform Ethiopian lives for a digital future and contribute to efforts being made to the phased operation launch,” local media quoted Mr Soussa to have said.
On his part, the CEO of Ethiopian Electric Power, Mr Balcha, agreed that the deal would lay the foundation for both companies to work together.
As you may well know, Safaricom is set to become the first privately-owned telecommunication company to operate in the Horn of African country. Its only competitor for now would be Ethio Telecom, an Ethiopian state-owned telco.
Recall that late last month, Safaricom had unveiled its first data centre in Addis Ababa ahead of its anticipated launch. Business Insider Africa reported that the data centre cost the company $100 million and was constructed by in China by Huawei and Nokia. The company said plans are underway to construct two more data centres in the next five years.
Thanks to this latest deal, Safaricom will now make use of Ethiopian Electric Power’s Optical Ground Wire (“OPGW”) cables to provide services such as voice, data, video, text, messages, and conferencing. This is a cheaper option for Safaricom, compared to having to build all the infrastructure it needs to operate in the country.