Ethio telecom has been providing telecom services in our country for the past 130 years, playing a pivotal role in driving the nation’s socio-economic development and enhancing the quality of life for its citizens. The company devised and implemented a three-year LEAD growth strategy, positioning itself as a leading digital solutions provider. Through this strategy, the company extends its services beyond mere connectivity, offering digital and financial services that promote inclusive growth and simplify daily activities for both businesses and individuals. Notably, we have achieved remarkable results for two consecutive years during the strategic period.

In the 2024/25 fiscal year, our company embarked on a new beginning with a new perspective. This year marks the third year of our strategic period. We are determined to uphold our leadership position across all sectors and actively contribute to the comprehensive social and economic development of our community. As part of our commitment, we have outlined a detailed plan to accelerate the digital transformation of our country and cultivate the growth of a digital economy. Our strategy revolves around implementing cutting-edge digital solutions to empower key economic sectors, enhance institutional efficiency, boost productivity, unleash their potential and drive positive outcomes for the overall social and economic progress of our society.

HUMAN-CENTERED GROWTH AND CONTINUITY PLAN

While reviewing the two-year implementation of the three-year Lead growth strategy and designing the plan for the fiscal year, we took several key factors into account.  Firstly, we considered the government policy documents and development and growth plans—specifically, the 10-year government plan and the local economic development plan—which play a critical role in shaping the competitive and sustainable growth of our company. These documents influence our strategy and ensure alignment with national priorities.

Additionally, we incorporated the recent macroeconomic policy reforms into our planning process, as they directly affect both our operational environment and the broader market landscape. We also conducted an in-depth review of the needs and impacts of our internal and external stakeholders, which include customers, employees, regulatory bodies, technology providers, and various government entities.  Furthermore, the plan is prepared by analyzing the market activity and experience of other similar institutions, and it accommodates a changing reality, considering the nature of the business, the ongoing market conditions, and international best practices have been carefully identified, along with the internal strengths and limitations of our company.

Our company is fully committed to implementing the strategic thematic areas that have been identified, including Supreme Customer Experience, Sustainable Business Growth, Excellence in Technology & Solutions, Operational Excellence, Leading Brand, and People-Centric High-Performing Company. By effectively managing our human resources, knowledge, and assets, we strive to position ourselves as the preferred choice for customers, partners, and stakeholders alike. To ensure this, our corporate strategic targets have been cascaded to all relevant work units, accompanied by key performance indicators (KPIs) and specific targets. This systematic approach allows for proper execution, ensuring the continuous growth of our company while addressing the strategic objectives set forth as of July 2024, Ethiopian Fiscal Year (EFY).

The strategy is designed to satisfy the ever-changing customer demand, raise telecom density, ensure digital and financial inclusion, build a digital economy, enhance productivity, and shift revenue from basic connectivity services to value-added and content-driven services. This will be achieved by expanding telecom infrastructure and focusing on cloud, infrastructure, and enterprise solutions. The plan also includes adding and launching new offers in mobile money services and introducing new business streams and digital solutions. Notably, enhanced digital financial services will be introduced through strengthened existing better experiences, all aimed at ensuring the continuity, growth, profitability, and reliability of our company.

MAJOR PLANS FOR THE FISCAL YEAR

EMPOWERING AND ENABLING TELECOM AND DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE

In this fiscal year, our company aims to solidify its position as a leading provider of digital solutions. By leveraging our existing telecommunications and digital infrastructure, we will drive our country’s digital transformation and enable it to compete on a global scale. Furthermore, we will continue to invest in expanding our telecommunications and digital infrastructure to deliver high-quality, customer-centric services. This will enable us to provide innovative digital solutions that empower individuals, businesses, and organizations to reach their full potential.

To this end, we are dedicated to continuing our efforts to expand the telecom network and improve service quality. By implementing projects to expand and strengthen modern telecommunications and digital infrastructure and systems, we aim to further support the ongoing national digital transformation initiatives.

 TELECOM INFRASTRUCTURE EXPANSION PLANS:

• Building 1,298 new mobile sites to enhance telecom coverage and capacity
• Expanding 4G service to an extra 500 cities
• Introducing 5G service in an additional 15 cities
• Narrowing the digital gap between rural and urban areas through improved service accessibility in rural regions, including the establishment of 331 rural connectivity solutions, 165 mobile network sites, and a total of 496 sites to cover 1,000 rural kebeles
• planned to build 320,000 new ODNs to raise the fixed network capacity and accommodate an additional customers, expand the metro network by 1,553 km, upsurge the fiber network from 21, 800 km to 22,200 km, and increase the International Gateway (IGW) capacity by 25%.

DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE EXPANSION PLANS

• Beyond connectivity services, our company plans to implement the cutting-edge technologies that streamline our enterprise customers’ business activities, and digital solutions making our company unique such as cloud and edge computing, Internet of Things, Data center, contact center service (CcaaS), video, game and music services and to expand digital agriculture, health, education and smart city.
• Plans to increase data center IT load capacity from 4.2 MW to 7 MW, in terms of expanding cloud services, upgrade cloud computing by adding a new 22,272 vCPU, upgrade enterprise storage by adding a new 1.49 PB; expand objective Storage by 4.5 PB and edge cloud expansion.
• In terms of optimizing and upgrading the IT system, the customer accommodation capacity of Cloud Business Solutions (CBS) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) will be upgraded from 80 million to 90 million.
• In terms of optimizing AI implementation, it’s panned to strengthening the ongoing efforts and identifying telecom fraud prevention and detection though network performance and widely implement to improve customer service experience.

 PRODUCT AND SERVICES TO BE RELEASED IN THE BUDGET YEAR

The plan involves launching new products and services that improve customer experiences throughout the budget year by expanding the aforementioned telecom and digital infrastructure. It also focuses on enhancing existing offerings to align with customer needs and introducing additional services tailored to the needs of enterprise customers. Thus,

• 260 new and enhanced products and services for both individual and enterprise customers will be available to the market.

Additionally, our company plans to provide more than 1.1 million telecom devices to individual and enterprise customers to ensure a sufficient supply.

PLANS TO INCREASE TELEBIRR ACCESSIBILITY AND DIGITAL FINANCIAL INCLUSION

To expand the accessibility of the telebirr service, which is significantly contributing to advancing digital financial inclusion in our country, plans are in place to increase the number of telebirr agents by 28%, reaching 275,000. Additionally, the number of merchants making telebirr transactions will grow by 102%, reaching 367,000, and the number of telebirr customers will rise by 15.7% to reach a total of 55 million customers.

Furthermore, the plan aims at enhancing digital financial services, local digital money transfers, e-commerce payments, and international online transactions, and increasing the number of remittance partners by offering telebirr products and services that meet customer needs and add values.

Our company continues to play a pivotal role in accelerating the nation’s digital economy by expanding telebirr services. Through increased expansion, we enable our community to easily make payments, send, and receive money, and support institutions in modernizing their payment systems thereby increasing the inclusivity and accessibility of digital financial services to bridge the digital divide.

PLANS FOR FOREIGN CURRENCY GENERATION

Our company plans to generate  $282.85 million in foreign currency during the fiscal year by expanding international strategic partnerships and delivering competitive services including  increasing the scope and variety of service types that generate international revenue and foreign exchange, with a particular focus on enhancing international and remittance services and broadening our network of partners.

RURAL CONNECTIVITY PLANS FOR BRIDGING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE

In the 2017 fiscal year, our company committed to building 331 rural connectivity solutions and 165 mobile network sites, totaling 496 sites, to extend network coverage to 1,000 rural kebeles. This initiative aimed to narrow the digital divide between urban and rural areas by significantly expanding network infrastructure in rural regions.

To further promote the adoption of telecommunications services, digital solutions, and digital finance, we partnered with stakeholders to offer over 250,000 discounted smartphones to low-income rural communities. This initiative aimed to increase digital inclusion and empower rural communities with affordable access to technology.

By expanding telecommunications services in rural areas, this plan enables our rural communities to access digital solutions and digital financial services beyond telecommunications. This initiative is expected to foster inclusive, sustainable development and economic benefits for rural communities.

COST OPTIMIZATION (DO2SAVE) PLANS

Building on the cost-saving culture established over the past three years, the plan involves enhancing resource and value management, increasing resource utilization, and reducing costs through modernizing the procurement process. In addition to expanding revenue streams, the company will continue to implement the DO2SAVE strategy, aiming to save 3.2 billion Birr through cost optimization. This effort is expected to significantly support the company’s profitability and ongoing growth.

MANPOWER AND  INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY BUILDING PLANS

• Further strengthening the resilience of our company’s leadership in adapting to changing business conditions and excelling at transforming challenges into opportunities.
• Evaluating the current skill set of employees and conducting a skills gap analysis to identify the digital skills and competencies required to support the digital transformation strategy, thereby providing extensive digital skills training across various areas such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, data analysis, and agile development.

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT PLANS

In addition to providing connectivity services, our company is playing a significant role in discharging its corporate social responsibility (CSR) commitments that immensely benefit our society at large. In this fiscal year too, the company will actively participate in key CSR initiatives, focusing on areas such as healthcare, education, environmental protection, humanitarian aid, charitable activities, and national projects.

THE 2017 EFY MAJOR BUSINESS PLAN TARGETS

By implementing the detailed plans outlined, , our company aims to grow the subscriber base by 6%, reaching 83 million customers in this fiscal year. This includes increasing mobile voice subscribers by 5.5% to reach 79.7 million, expanding mobile data and internet users by 16% to reach 47.4 million, and increasing fixed broadband customers by 25% to reach 934k as well as to increase our tele density to 73%.

In terms of increasing our revenue, the plan includes not only leveraging the exiting telecom revenue sources but also introducing value-added services, offering new and enhanced digital, local, and international services, expanding enterprise solutions, increasing telebirr accessibility  and service types, and growing the network of partners as well as by enhancing service delivery and increasing customer satisfaction, retention and loyalty, we aim to raise our revenue from 93 billion Birr to 163.7 billion Birr, 74.7 % increment from last budget year.

Finally, we would like to extend our sincere gratitude to our customers, business partners, media partners, distributor agents of our products and services, suppliers, vendors and stakeholders for their continued support and contribution to the attainment of our outstanding performance in the last fiscal year. Likewise, we encourage all stakeholders to continue joining hands with us in the journey toward realizing a digital Ethiopia in the time ahead.

                                             September 19, 2024

                                                  Ethio telecom