(Ecofin Agency) - Ethio Telecom announced it missed its financial targets for the first half of 2021 by 13.6%. CEO Frehiwot Tamiru (pictured) revealed this yesterday January 31 during the presentation of the company's financial results for the period from July to December 2021.

Revenue over the period amounts to 28 billion birrs ($565 million), up 6.7% compared to the same period in 2020. Ethio Telecom says it has missed its expected financial performance due to security challenges in Ethiopia, particularly the Tigray region.

“Due to crises, 3,473 base stations were out of operation resulting in a revenue loss of 3.67 billion birr” ($74 million). The restoration in those areas where recovery was possible cost us 328.9 million birrs, but there are still many woredas [districts] remaining, including the Tigray region where we cannot provide our services and the conditions and status of our telecom infrastructures are not known,” the company said.

Ethio Telecom says it is satisfied with its subscriber base. The company announces that it has reached 60.8 million users, which is 100% of the expected target and an increase of 20% compared to the same period in 2020. Mobile voice subscribers have reached 58.7 million, Internet subscribers 23.8 million, fixed services have recorded 923,000 subscribers and there are 443,000 fixed broadband subscribers. This represents a telecom density of 58.5%.

Another operator, Safaricom Ethiopia, is set to launch by March 2022. The telecom company has planned an aggressive strategy with innovative services to rapidly increase its customer base. Safaricom Ethiopia is replicating the strategy it deployed in Kenya.

To stand the upcoming competition, Ethio Telecom is currently engaged in various network expansion and telecom infrastructure capacity enhancement projects. The rollout of 4G/LTE has been completed in 136 cities. Telebirr's integration with the banking system is also complete. Ethiopians can already transfer money from eleven banks to their Telebirr account. The reverse process is possible with eight banks.

Muriel Edjo