After a rocky start due to the market just liberalising, the Kenyan-based operator is winning customers as it build out its network
Safaricom Ethiopia has reached 10 million active subscribers, four years after acquiring its telecom license. That figure is based on SIM cards active within a 90-day period and follows the addition of 7.1 million new users over the past year, a sign of strong user adoption despite patchy national connectivity, according to Birrmetrics.
According to the operator, its mobile network now reaches over 50% of Ethiopia’s population, with more than 3,141 live sites operating across 150 towns and cities. To date, Safaricom Ethiopia has invested more than ETB 300 billion in network infrastructure and related services.
Ethiopia is home to over 112 million people, making it the second largest country in Africa by population. Since the launch of Safaricom Ethiopia in 2022, the cost of its mobile data services in the country has fallen by up to 70 per cent.
The development places Safaricom ahead of schedule in terms of customer uptake, but the operator is still sinking large capex amounts into expanding its network. That said, it parent and its backers, Vodafone, Vodacom and Sumitomo Corporation are viewing this as a long-term play which makes sense given the population.
In addition to network moves, the operator is also pushing into financial services. Its M-Pesa mobile money platform, licensed in Ethiopia in 2023, now reportedly has 1.2 million monthly active users, though the operator has acknowledged that transaction volumes remain modest.
Momentum building
In May, the Kenyan parent said that its earnings could surge as much as 50% this financial year as it projected that losses in key expansion market Ethiopia would fall steeply. At the time, Safaricom Ethiopia CEO Wim Vanhelleputte said active data users were each consuming an average of 6.5GB per month. This is a 53% increase in data consumption per user, over the previous fiscal year.
By the end of March 2025, the operator acquired 8.8 million 90-day active voice and data customers, marking a 103 percent year-on-year increase in its 90-day active customer base.
“From the beginning, our purpose has been very clear. We want to support Ethiopia’s digital transformation by building inclusive, high quality mobile connectivity that reaches and empowers everyone, everywhere all the time,” said Vanhelleputte.
“We have extended our fast mobile network to cover more than half of the population,” he said “Our investment in telecom infrastructure…has laid the foundation for our growth, but behind this success are our people.”
“We are proud of our team of 900 direct employees,” he said. “We have also created more than 20,000 indirect jobs through our SIM selling brand ambassadors, our distributors and our many local subcontractors.”
