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FILE PHOTO: The Nairobi skyline is seen in the background as zebras walk through the Nairobi National Park, near Nairobi, Kenya, December 3, 2018. REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsNAIROBI, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Kenya will start its privatisation drive by offering stakes in 11 companies including the state oil pipeline, the finance ministry said on Monday. The 11 firms are among more than 35 companies that are slated for sale to partially help the government raise revenue in the face of growing debt repayments. "Privatisation and restructuring is geared towards the government's efforts for fiscal consolidation and spurring economic development," the ministry added. The government revised the law governing the sale of state companies last month to the eliminate bureaucracy that had made the process grind to a halt, the president said last week.
Persons: Amir Cohen, Duncan Miriri, Miral Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Kenya Pipeline Company, Thomson Locations: Nairobi, Kenya, Rights NAIROBI
NAIROBI, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Kenya's President William Ruto said on Thursday the government was poised to privatise 35 state companies after enacting a law last month to guide the process. Kenya last privatised a state-owned company in 2008 with an initial public offering (IPO) for 25% of the shares in telecommunications firm Safaricom (SCOM.NR). "We have identified the first 35 companies that we are going to offer to the private sector. Kenya's President William Ruto speaks during the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Summit at United Nations headquarters in New York City, New York, U.S., September 18, 2023. "If well harnessed, stock exchanges can be the engine that transforms Africa into a global economic powerhouse and financial centre of the world," the president said.
Persons: William Ruto, Ruto, Njuguna Ndung'u, Ndung'u, Caitlin Ochs, Bourses, Thapelo, Ducan Miriri, Marc Jones, Aaron Ross, Kirsten Donovan Organizations: African, Nairobi . Finance, Reuters, Sustainable, United Nations, REUTERS, Botswana Stock Exchange, Bharti Airtel, Thomson Locations: NAIROBI, Kenya, Nairobi, New York City , New York, U.S, Africa, Uganda, London
South Africa's Vodacom half-year profit hit by Ethiopia costs
  + stars: | 2023-11-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com   time to read: +1 min
JOHANNESBURG, Nov 13 (Reuters) - South Africa's biggest telecoms operator Vodacom (VODJ.J) reported a 4.2% drop in half-year earnings on Monday, hit by the cost of starting operations in Ethiopia and higher interest rates. The company, which is majority owned by Britain's Vodafone (VOD.L), co-launched Safaricom Ethiopia last year, betting that the populous nation will power growth after about five years of investment. Group CEO Shameel Joosub said Safaricom Ethiopia has already reached 4.1 million customers and more recently it launched its mobile financial services business M-Pesa there. Group service revenue grew 42.2% to 59.3 billion rand ($3.16 billion), thanks to the acquisition of Vodafone Egypt and rand depreciation against its basket of international currencies. Excluding the contribution of Vodafone Egypt, group service revenue growth was 7.9% or 4.1% on a normalised basis, supported by a resilient performance in South Africa, the operator said.
Persons: Shameel Joosub, Nqobile Dludla, Jacqueline Wong Organizations: Africa's, Vodacom, Britain's Vodafone, Vodafone, Thomson Locations: JOHANNESBURG, Ethiopia, Vodafone Egypt, South Africa
[1/2] A customer displays the package of a Safaricom Ethiopia sim card during the service launch in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, October 6, 2022. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsADDIS ABABA, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Safaricom's (SCOM.NR) M-Pesa mobile money service went live in Ethiopia on Wednesday, in a boost to the Kenyan telecoms operator as it seeks to kickstart growth in one of Africa's biggest economies. The company also faces stiff competition from Ethio Telecom, whose profits more than doubled in its latest financial year. In July, Ethio Telecom reported having more than 34 million subscribers to its mobile money service Telebirr. Mobile money services are common in East Africa, allowing customers to send and receive money and pay for goods and services.
Persons: Safaricom, Stanley Njoroge, Dawit, Elias Biryabarema, Aaron Ross, Jane Merriman Organizations: REUTERS, Tiksa, South Africa’s Vodacom, Britain’s Vodafone, Democratic, Ethio Telecom, Thomson Locations: Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, ADDIS ABABA, Horn of Africa, Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ghana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Tanzania, Mobile, East Africa
NAIROBI, June 2 (Reuters) - Kenya's central bank does not consider the issuance of a digital currency a "compelling priority" but it will continue monitoring developments in the area to help future decisions on issuance, it said on Friday. The bank invited views from the public on the potential introduction of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in February last year, in a shift from its original opposition to crypto assets, but it has decided not to issue any. "Implementation of a CBDC in Kenya may not be a compelling priority in the short to medium term." The East African nation is renowned for the wide usage of mobile money payments. Nigeria became the first African country to launch a digital currency in 2021.
Persons: Duncan Miriri, Emelia Sithole Organizations: Thomson Locations: NAIROBI, Kenya, Nigeria
ADDIS ABABA, May 3 (Reuters) - Ethiopia will issue up to five banking licenses to foreign investors in the next five years, part of plans to open up the financial services sector to foreign competition, a senior central bank official said on Wednesday. "We will give three to five licenses within five years," vice governor of the central bank Solomon Desta told reporters. Ethiopia's banking industry is dominated by state-owned Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, and the sector has 29 players, all of them locally owned. Desta said foreign investors would have different options to enter the industry, including forming joint ventures with domestic players, or establishing local subsidiaries. Foreign investors have long eyed sectors including banking, telecoms, transportation and aviation in Ethiopia, a country of more than 100 million people and one of the biggest economies in Sub-Saharan Africa.
[1/2] Ethio Telecom employees serve a customer inside their call centre in the Bole neighborhood branch in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia July 29, 2022. REUTERS/Tiksa NegeriADDIS ABABA, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Ethiopia's state-owned Ethio Telecom on Thursday reported a 20% rise in half-year revenue to 33.8 billion birr ($633 million). Subscribers to its mobile phone-based financial service Telebirr, launched in May 2021, grew to 27.2 million out of its 70 million total subscribers, CEO Frehiwot Tamiru told a news conference. That was up from 21.8 million Telebirr subscribers in June 2022. Efforts to attract investment have been hampered, however, by a two-year war in the northern Tigray region, which has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions.
[1/2] Pedestrians walk on a sideway outside the Safaricom mobile phone customer care centre in the central business district of Nairobi, Kenya, November 10, 2021. REUTERS/Monicah MwangiOct 27 (Reuters) - Kenya's largest telecoms operator Safaricom (SCOM.NR) launched its 5G high-speed internet service on Thursday, becoming the first firm to deploy the technology commercially in East Africa. The company, whose internet provision business is one of its fastest growing, uses equipment from Nokia (NOKIA.HE) and Huawei (HWT.UL) to power its 5G network. While Safaricom dominates the mobile data market - commanding about a 65% share - it holds only about a third of the fixed data market, data from the Communications Authority of Kenya showed. Customers with compatible phones would however be able to use the network soon, the company said, when it starts selling 5G data packages.
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