In 2020, Ethiopia launched Digital Transformation Strategy to achieve it fully by 2025. The Digital Ethiopia 2025 aims to digitalize major services and to make the digital sector major driver of the economic development of the country. The Digital Ethiopia 2025 includes five priorities, implementation of digital ID, digital payments, e-governance, e-commerce and cyber security.
The strategy gives four foundational areas to catalyze the realization of digital transformation, infrastructure expansion, creating enabling systems, promoting digital interactions and digital economy. Guided by the 10 year development perspective plan, Digital Ethiopia 2025 strategy aims to achieve Ethiopia’s goal of becoming middle income status by 2025.
The digital transformation aims to accelerate the journey from an analogue society where government, businesses and social interactions take place in person, to fully integrated inclusive digital ecosystem. By creating suitable environment and developing digital ecosystem, the strategy envisions making transactions faster, cheaper, and more secure using technology where most of the interaction takes place though online.
According to the Digital Ethiopia 2025 strategy, innovation is critical to develop digital economy through creating new and improved goods, services, business practices by creating or adopting new technology. Considering the critical role of digital ecosystem, in addition to launching the digital strategy, the Ethiopian government gives due attention in developing infrastructures and adopting suitable policies that promote investments in the digital sector. The Ethiopian government promotes private and government sectors to develop their investments to develop the digital sector.
The giant telecom operator in Ethiopia providing for over 129 years of telecom services, Ethio Telecom, is the leading sector in accelerating the journey of digitalization in Ethiopia, both in expanding infrastructures and introducing new methods. Announcing its 2023/24 annual business plan last week, Ethio Telecom announced that in addition to working to expand its services and to grow its business, it gives due focus to transform Ethiopia’s digitalization journey.
Ethio Telecom’s persistent activity with its motto of “beyond connectivity” focuses on transforming the industry by introducing innovative value added services and content driven solutions. By diversifying its business streams and implementing digital solutions, including enhanced digital financial services, the company aims to offer a comprehensive range of local and international products and services to the market.
The company gives due focus to expand telebirr access, service types, and nurturing strategic partnerships, thereby elevating service delivery and prioritizing customer satisfaction. By expanding its services and introducing innovative and value added services, Ethio Telecom aspires to achieve remarkable growth by 2023/24 budget year, targeting 90.5 billion birr revenue just over 19.4% increment from the preceding fiscal year.
The corporate strategic objective of Ethio Telecom, according to the company, “is designed to satisfy the ever-changing customer demand, ensure digital and financial inclusion, build digital economy, enhance productivity, and shift the revenue from basic connectivity services to value added and content driven services by introducing new business streams and digital solutions including enhanced digital financial services.”
Briefing journalists about the details of the annual business plan and next strategic priorities of Ethio Telecom, company Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Firehiwot Tamiru said that parallel to working to grow the business activities of Ethio Telecom, the company gives due focus to realize Ethiopia’s digital transformation. “The goal of Ethio Telecom is beyond expanding business and earning revenue, the company has a responsibility to realize Ethiopia’s digital transformation by introducing new innovations and expanding infrastructures that helps to facilitate digitalization,” Firehiwot stated.
As to her, the company secured over 75 billion birr during the 2023/24 budget year and using this as a baseline, the company launched a three years lead growth strategy that aims both to grow its business and the Ethiopia’s digital transformation. The 2023/24 comprehensive business strategic plan of the company also aimed at fostering and enabling inclusive growth by providing digital and financial services beyond connectivity “so as to simplify the lives of our people and smoothly run the business activities of our partners and institutions,” the company reiterated.
By strengthening telecom network expansion and service quality assurance activities, Ethio Telecom plans to handle 13 million more customers in the new budget year. In addition, it has planned to deploy 998 new mobile stations, 140 new mobile stations in rural areas as well as 4G/LTE Advanced and 4G network expansion and optimization to meet the growing demand of data users and 5G network expansions. The company also plans to increase its customer base to reach 78 million and to raise its telebirr customers by 28.5% and reach 44.1 million by end of the fiscal year.
A document prepared by the company entitled “Accelerating Digital Transformation of Ethiopia,” which consists of a three years lead growth strategy revealed that accelerating digital transformation of Ethiopia is a priority agenda. By accelerating the digitalization, it aims to ease doing business, improve efficiency, digital inclusiveness, create job opportunities, drive digital economy, promote financial inclusiveness and drive economic growth and boosting productivity.
According to the company, for the coming three years, digital transformation, technology excellence, network densification, security, safety and risk management, improvement in quality of service and experience are among the top strategic priorities of the company. By expanding the infrastructure of the industry and promoting digitalization, Ethio Telecom aims to support Ethiopia’s efforts of digital transformation in all sectors.
By introducing telebirr mobile money in 2021, Ethio telecom now has over 34 million subscribers. Considering the growing demand and the market potential, the company plans to increase the subscribers to 44.1 million by the end of this budget year. Expanding telebirr would help digital financial transaction especially for the rural people where access to bank is limited. Over 75% of the Ethiopian population lives in the rural parts of the country and the rural people forced to travel to cities and towns to get Bank access. Expanding mobile money would help to promote cashless transaction and to help the rural population to save their time and energy.
Considering the growing demands and its benefits, Ethio Telecom gives to focus on increasing digital service delivery options, enhancing and diversifying digital financial services, expanding telebirr’s accessibility throughout the country through customer awareness creation activities, in the new budget year. It aims to develop its engagement in beyond connectivity services so as to strengthening financial capacity.
Beyond promoting the digital financing by directly involving in the business, the goal of Ethio Telecom’s accelerating digital transformation aims to develop digitalization in all sectors through infrastructural expansion. Though infrastructure and accessibility are still limited, services are growingly becoming online and digitalized. Online services are also helping to ease bureaucracies, saving time and catalyzing business activities. Considering its critical role and Ethiopia’s efforts to develop its economy, Ethio Telecom is working to develop the digital infrastructure so as to fulfill its responsibility in realizing Ethiopia’s economic development.
In addition to the finance sector, the digital industry is facilitating access to education, health services, agricultural development, transportation and logistics, tourism and entertainment sectors. Hence, expanding digital infrastructure and creating enabling conditions in the sector would help Ethiopia’s development activities in all sectors. Ethio Telecom is playing its leading role in this regard in addition to its telecom services throughout the country. It continues becoming a leading provider of digital solutions in Ethiopia and striving to realize the vision of Digital Ethiopia 2025.
BY DARGIE KAHSAY
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD FRIDAY 4 AUGUST 2023
