Ethio telecom Three-years LEAD Growth Strategy and 2023/24 Annual Business Plan

Ethio telecom has been providing telecom services in our country for the last 129 years, playing an enabler role for the socio-economic development of the nation, as well as for the improvement of the lives of the citizens. It has devised and implemented a three-year LEAD growth strategy which enables it to become a leading digital solutions provider in the competitive telecom market. The strategy focuses on providing services beyond connectivity, enabling inclusive growth by providing digital and financial services and simplifying the daily activities of businesses and individuals. The first-year strategy execution was successfully concluded with outstanding performance. 

This annual business plan has been developed considering and reviewing relevant government policies, international best practices, and Industry trends. Various important analyses have also been made such as internal and external stakeholders’ interests and expectations (Customers, Employees, Vendors/suppliers and various government organs), past company performances, internal strengths, organizational resources and capacities, and weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the outer environment and the market dynamics. Furthermore, inputs from last year’s strategy execution and this new business plan will accommodate a changing reality, considering the nature of the business and the ongoing market conditions. After these multi-faceted observations and analysis of environmental conditions, strategic priorities have been identified and six strategic thematic areas have been formulated.

As the telecom sector is rapidly growing and dynamic by nature, this plan is not a static plan, rather follows a ‘deliberate’ and ’emergent strategy approach’, taking into account the growth and changes in the industry, the government’s development plans and directions, as well as issues related to competition and further reform, and the current conditions of our country.

Vision

A Leading Digital Solutions Provider

Mission

Our Mission is to Provide Reliable Communications & Digital Financial Services to Simplify Life, and Accelerate Digital Transformation of Ethiopia.

Values

• Human- Centric
• Integrity
• Excellence
• Socially Responsible
• Togetherness

Our company aims to realize the identified strategic thematic areas such as: Supreme Customer Experience, Sustainable Business Growth, Excellence in Technology & Solutions, Operational Excellence, Leading Brand, People-centric High performing company by properly managing its human resources, knowledge and resources and strives to be a company preferred by its customers, partners and stakeholders.

The strategy has been organized in six thematic areas with 17 strategic Objectives and several strategic initiatives to address the strategic priorities and ensure the sustainable growth of the company. The corporate strategic objectives will be cascaded to respective work units along with relevant KPIs and Targets for proper execution.

The strategy is designed to satisfy the ever-changing customer demand, ensure digital and financial inclusion, build digital economy, enhance productivity, shift the revenue from basic connectivity services to value added and content driven services by introducing new business streams and digital solutions including enhanced digital financial services.

MAJOR INITIATIVES

In this fiscal year, our company plans to make multifaceted efforts to ensure quality of service that increase customer satisfaction and improve experience, especially through network and system capacity enhancement and improvement projects including but not limited to

• Strengthening telecom network expansion and service quality assurance activities through 4G/LTE Advanced and 3G network expansion and optimization to meet the growing demand of data users and 5G network expansion. Total mobile service capacity will be 92M by end of the fiscal year.
• Implementation of new and modern telecom infrastructure and systems expansion (Data Center, Cloud, Business and Operation Support System…)
• Providing quality and affordable products and services based on customer needs.
• Develop new revenue streams;
• Provide services that meet the needs of enterprise customers;
• Provide enterprise customers with security solutions;
• Modernizing service delivery, especially increasing digital service delivery options and promptly responding to customer service needs;
• Enhancing and diversifying digital financial services, engaging more partners;
• Expanding telebirr’s accessibility throughout the country through customer awareness creation activities
• Engaging in Beyond Connectivity Services and strengthening financial capacity
• Provide efficient service to customers by modernizing internal processes and business processes automation;
• Maintaining the financial soundness of the company and strengthening cost-saving and efficient resource utilization practices;
• Enhance resilience of our leadership to easily adapt to the challenging business environment and strengthen the ability to turn challenges into opportunities;
• Engage in employee’s capacity building activities to enhance the spirit of competitiveness and to be able to provide competitive services to customers;
• Designing and implementing various employee retention programs to keep qualified and skilled employees with the company;
• Supporting the community through various CSR programs, enhance company’s reputation and nurture the ownership and belongingness feeling and acceptance of the community, to build a preferred brand known for the quality and affordable services.

Major Business Plan Objectives and Targets in 2016 EFY (2023/24)

In this budget year, we plan to increase the subscriber base by 8.3 % to reach 78 Million,  mobile voice customers share grow by 7.5% to reach 74.74 million, data & Internet to reach 41.17 million (+21%), fixed broadband customers to reach 842.8 K (+36.3%)  and raise tele density to 71%.Besides, we plan to raise telebirr customers by 28.5% to reach 44.1 million.

We aim to generate 90.5 billion birr, 19.4% increment from last budget year, through engaging in new business streams and shifting revenue source from traditional to value-added services, offering local and international products & services to the market, expanding telebirr’s access, service types and partners network, enhancing service delivery and by increasing customer satisfaction, retention and loyalty.

We will commit our resources and efforts towards satisfying our customers and continuously enhancing their experience by providing various service options that will increase their loyalty, improving our services accessibility, facilitating digital channels, improving post-sales services to enable them to have better experience, and implement network expansion programs that increase the quality of service and network density.

We will work in great attention and collaboration with ecosystem players to accelerate digitalization activities by providing various beyond connectivity solutions in education, health, agriculture, and urban modernization, thereby improving the overall national economic revitalization, national competitiveness, and enabling institutions to provide fast, efficient, and transparent services to their customers. In addition, we are working on engaging more partners, offering installment based handsets and other gadgets and availing credit services etc to ensure affordability and customer satisfaction.

The strategy will also continue to focus on the most key company asset – employees, to equip them with relevant knowledge and develop high performance culture, with skill that will enable them to catch up with the telecom industry dynamism, to exploit opportunities arising from development of the industry and cope with the challenges.   On the top of development efforts, we will ensure implementation of succession planning to produce successors in key professional positions and leadership. Furthermore, we will design a mechanism to retain our key qualified leaders and employees.

Telecom business needs collaboration and concerted efforts of all players in the ecosystem. To further enhance the strategy execution, this strategy and annual business plan will be discussed with partners including vendors and distributors, content providers and other stakeholders. Furthermore, we will engage with other key stakeholders to explore and cooperate in areas of common interest so as to capitalize on opportunities and tackle challenges for the benefit of the industry and the wide nation.

Finally, we would like to extend our most sincere gratitude to our management and employees, customers, business and media partners, vendors and stakeholders for their continual support and contribution in our journey. We call upon our esteemed customers and partners to join hands in realizing digital Ethiopia.

     Let us collaborate to Accelerate Digital Transformation of Ethiopia!

                                               JULY 27, 2023

                                            ETHIO TELECOM