MTN will bid in second Ethiopia telecoms licence round
MTN Group will bid again for an Ethiopia operating telecom licence in the second round if mobile financial services are included, its CEO said on Friday after losing the first round.
Mobile financial services is key to MTN's strategy as it continues to evolve from just providing voice to also providing data, digital services and mobile payment and lending solutions as demand for these services rise.
MTN expects fintech service revenue contribution to rise from 8% to 20% in 2025, with mobile money subscribers seen rising to 100 million from the current 46.6 million, CFO Tsholofelo Molefe told investors.
"For us it will really be important to see mobile money in that opportunity to put forward a bid and if it's not there then probably we wouldn't even bid," MTN Group CEO Ralph Mupita told investors at the group's capital markets day
If licence conditions in the second round remain the same, it might not bid at a higher amount, he said.
Last month Ethiopia's telecommunications regulator announced that it had awarded one operating licence to a consortium led by Kenya's Safaricom, Vodafone, and Japan's Sumitomo.
The consortium, which includes Vodacom and British development finance agency CDC Group, paid $850-million for the licence, while MTN's offer of $600-million was deemed too low.
"We really wanted to have seen mobile money in the licence regime, so we adjusted our bid for the lack of mobile money," Mupita said.
Comments
The
functionality
you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.
If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.
If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.
For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation