ADDIS ABABA – Ethio telecom announced that the ongoing reform has transformed the Company to a better position in comparison with the previous budget year that ended up positioning it in a risk zone.
Frehiwot Tamiru, CEO of the Company noted that various interventions were applied to help the Company regain trust, run smooth business relationships and operations accordingly.
“One of the major achievements is the Chinese Financial institutions showing willingness to work with it and to easily facilitate issues related to loan directly with the Company.” she noted.
The Company scored a notable achievement in loan repayment 360 million USD. The lion share from the payment is an amount of loan arrears accumulated for the last three years.
The consorted efforts exerted by stakes made Ethio telecom to reach positive cash position in many directions distancing from risk zone and recording high level business performance in the budget year.
The CEO also noted that with a massive tariff discount, ranging on average from 40- 50 percent, the Company generated 36.3 billion Birr of revenue, which is 85 percent of the target showing seven percent increment from the previous budget year.
According
to her, Ethio telecom has achieved extraordinary results in putting in place
high
leadership management standards as well assessing technical capability and business performance that could ensure quality services.
The Telecom paid over 16 Billion Birr tax, of which about five billion Birr being tax arrears. The tax amount paid shows 40 percent growth from the previous budget year. In this regard, the tax contribution of the Company accounts nearly 19 percent of the total tax collected from the large tax payers in the country that amounted about 86 billion Birr, she remarked.
As to her, the total subscribers have reached about 44 million which is 95 percent of the target and an increase of 15 percent from the previous year.
The total number of mobile voice subscribers, Data and Internet users, and fixed services users are reached to 42, 22, 1.2 million respectively, she elaborated.
She further noted the Company enabled to do away telecom fraud that lead to increase the contribution of international telecom service to the overall income. But fiber and copper cable vandalism, telecom fraud and commercial power interruption were among the main challenges the company faced.
The telecom history of the country aged 125 years old and the service was introduced in Ethiopia by Emperor Menelik II in 1894 when the construction of the telephone line from Harar to the capital city, Addis Ababa, was commenced.
The Ethiopian Herald July 24/2019
BY MENGISTEAB TESHOME
