This is the performance report for the fiscal year July 2024 to June 2025 and the three-year performance of the Lead Growth Strategy, which was publicly announced at the Science Museum on July 25, 2025.
Our company, recognizing its significant contribution to our country’s economy, the holistic development of our society, and the improvement of citizens’ lives, is diligently working to elevate the services it offers to its customers in line with rapid and dynamic business demands. We are undertaking extensive digital and telecom infrastructure expansion and improvement works to unlock transformative possibilities that reshape Ethiopia’s socio-economic landscape and modernize institutional frameworks. Our company formulated and implemented a three-year Lead Growth Strategy to become the leading digital solutions provider in the competitive market and play a leading role in all areas. Through its strategic direction, which has consistently gone beyond traditional connectivity, by extensively providing new digital solutions and digital financial services, equipping sectors crucial to the national economy with modern technologies that enhance institutional efficiency and productivity, and enabling them to fully utilize their potential, our company has registered key successes that enable Ethiopia to be positioned competitively within the global digital ecosystem. Particularly, our enterprise solutions business has demonstrated substantial growth and tangible impact, accelerating institutional modernization, driving economic efficiency, and solidifying Ethio telecom’s role as a key enabler of the nation’s digital transformation. As 2025 budget year is the final year for the Lead Growth Strategy, this report covers the performance of both the annual budget year and over the three years strategy period in terms of improving the overall customer experience, enhancing service accessibility and quality, expanding revenue streams and achieving operational excellence, increasing the capacity of network and digital infrastructures, and providing innovative solutions and digital financial services. Furthermore, the report presents the results our company has achieved in sustaining growth by implementing solutions that align with macroeconomic changes, ensuring the security of digital infrastructures by preventing telecom fraud, empowering human resources, undertaking key activities in job creation and social responsibility, and overall, the tangible results it has achieved in realizing Ethiopia’s digital transformation at the end of the strategy period.
Our company, recognizing its significant contribution to our country’s economy, the holistic development of our society, and the improvement of citizens’ lives, is diligently working to elevate the services it offers to its customers in line with rapid and dynamic business demands. We are undertaking extensive digital and telecom infrastructure expansion and improvement works to unlock transformative possibilities that reshape Ethiopia’s socio-economic landscape and modernize institutional frameworks. Our company formulated and implemented a three-year Lead Growth Strategy to become the leading digital solutions provider in the competitive market and play a leading role in all areas. Through its strategic direction, which has consistently gone beyond traditional connectivity, by extensively providing new digital solutions and digital financial services, equipping sectors crucial to the national economy with modern technologies that enhance institutional efficiency and productivity, and enabling them to fully utilize their potential, our company has registered key successes that enable Ethiopia to be positioned competitively within the global digital ecosystem. Particularly, our enterprise solutions business has demonstrated substantial growth and tangible impact, accelerating institutional modernization, driving economic efficiency, and solidifying Ethio telecom’s role as a key enabler of the nation’s digital transformation. As 2025 budget year is the final year for the Lead Growth Strategy, this report covers the performance of both the annual budget year and over the three years strategy period in terms of improving the overall customer experience, enhancing service accessibility and quality, expanding revenue streams and achieving operational excellence, increasing the capacity of network and digital infrastructures, and providing innovative solutions and digital financial services. Furthermore, the report presents the results our company has achieved in sustaining growth by implementing solutions that align with macroeconomic changes, ensuring the security of digital infrastructures by preventing telecom fraud, empowering human resources, undertaking key activities in job creation and social responsibility, and overall, the tangible results it has achieved in realizing Ethiopia’s digital transformation at the end of the strategy period.
Expansion of Telecom and Digital Infrastructure
Our company crafts, reviews, and implements up-to-date strategic plans to expand telecom & digital services, improve service quality, support the national digital transformation agenda, and enhance community benefit. Key initiatives among these include: expanding the capacity and coverage of 3G, 4G, and 5G networks based on data traffic growth; increasing backhaul and transport network capacity; enhancing fixed broadband capacity; expanding digital infrastructure; offering cloud services; developing Operations Support and Corporate Solutions to enable new service offerings; implementing security solutions; and undertaking various civil construction projects.Mobile Network Expansion Initiatives
During the fiscal year, our company built and launched 1,683 new mobile sites to enhance service quality, accessibility, and customer experience by improving network coverage and capacity. Of these 1,683 new sites, 836 (49.6%) are located in rural areas, which underscores our company’s commitment to ensuring network accessibility in the countryside. Furthermore, we have expanded LTE services to an additional 512 cities, bringing the total number of cities and districts with 4G LTE coverage to 936. Similarly, 5G services were introduced in 16 more cities, raising the total number of 5G-enabled cities to 26. We also deployed Massive MIMO—a mobile technology that utilizes a large number of antennas to improve spectrum efficiency and data speeds for wireless networks—at an additional 212 sites, bringing the total number of Massive MIMO-enabled sites to 306. These initiatives, along with the expansion of our 4G and 5G core networks, have improved network capacity and customer experience, increased the accessibility and quality of mobile data and related services, and thereby strengthened nationwide telecom and digital infrastructure. As a result of these efforts, the 4G network population coverage increased from 37.5% to 70.8% within this fiscal year alone. Notably, through large-scale mobile network expansion projects in the South-South West (SSWR) and South-South East (SSER) regions, we built a network capable of accommodating an additional 18.8 million mobile subscribers. This has increased the total mobile network capacity from 86.1 million at the end of the 2016 fiscal year to 104.8 million. Moreover, the overall Mobile Network Population Coverage has now reached 99.4%, and the Geographical Coverage has reached 86.5%. Empowering Rural Communities Ethio telecom is diligently working to expand rural mobile services, reaching previously unserved villages and localities. This enables rural residents to join the digital world and ensure inclusions In this budget year, 836 new sites were deployed in 12 regions and in 459 weredas, addressing 2,388 kebeles/villages. This expansion covered 5.9 million people. On average, these areas were 10 to 14 KM distant from the nearest telecom sites or towns. Transport Network and Power Supply Extensive work has been carried out at various sites involving the installation of optical patch cords to connect optical modules and ports with the Optical Distribution Frame (ODF). These installations are crucial for supporting new services on the backbone network and for improving overall network quality. During the fiscal year, 686.16 km of backbone fiber were deployed, bringing the total length of our deployed fiber, including Optical Ground Wire (OPGW), to 22,673.1 km. This has not only strengthened our network capacity but has also established a solid foundation for delivering reliable and efficient telecommunications services. Regarding power supply, during the current fiscal year, power upgrades were performed on 2,400 LTE and 5G sites. In addition, alternative solar power solutions were installed at 141 sites. Cumulatively, over the past three years, power upgrades have been completed for 4,700 sites, and solar power systems have been deployed at 199 sites. Similarly, in this fiscal year, 66 new generators were installed, while 193 existing generators were repaired and restored to service. Over the last three years, a total of 491 new generators have been installed and 289 generators have been repaired, which has been crucial for ensuring service continuity and enhancing customer experience. Fixed Network Expansion Initiatives During the fiscal year, to increase fiber network accessibility and improve network quality and capacity, an additional 305,894 in Optical Distribution Network (ODN) capacity was developed. This has successfully increased our total ODN capacity to 951,982. Continuing with our “Copper Switch-off Initiative”—a program designed to migrate fixed broadband services from copper to fiber networks, which plays a significant role in accelerating the nation’s digital transformation and development—a total of 35,701 customers have been migrated to fiber. Of these, 24,123 customers migrated alone within this fiscal year alone. To support the new ODN network construction and the Copper Switch-off Initiative, 233 Fiber Access Network devices (OLTs) were installed and commissioned during the fiscal year. In this fiscal year, a total of 301 mobile sites in Addis Ababa and 357 in the regions were connected with fiber, an initiative known as Fiber to the Tower (FTTT). This has brought the total number of FTTT-connected sites to 1,342 in Addis Ababa and 1,049 in the regions. In addition to the FTTT fiber deployment, 216 kilometers of metro fiber ring protection were installed to improve the quality and reliability of mobile services. Overall, 1,785 kilometers of metro fiber were constructed this year, bringing the total metro fiber network to 14,340 kilometers. For the Smart City, City Net, and “Gebeta Lehager” projects, 529 kilometers of fiber network were deployed this fiscal year. This brings the total length of fiber network deployed for these specific projects over the past three years to 2,066 kilometers. To enhance Quality of Service (QoS) and improve customer experience, 89 kilometers of metro fiber rehabilitation work was performed. Furthermore, due to road and corridor development projects, 274 MSAG and MSAN cabinets were relocated outside of construction boundaries without significant disruption to customer services. International Gateway (IGW) Capacity To accommodate the high volume of data traffic resulting from tariff reductions and increased data usage, the International Gateway (IGW) capacity has been upgraded and expanded. During the fiscal year, the capacity was increased by 840 Gbps, bringing the total IGW capacity to 2.48 Tbps. This total capacity includes 1,242 Gbps from locally deployed cache servers for platforms such as Meta, Netflix, TikTok, and other international social media services, significantly enhancing the customer experience. Information Technology System Enhancement and Improvement Initiatives Our company has achieved significant technological excellence by adopting modern advancements and future proof technologies that hold immense value for both the general public’s daily lives and the operational efficiency of enterprises. Specifically, we are implementing new technologies and digital solutions that enable faster and more convenient customer service and significantly modernize operations. Key among these initiatives are: OSS Cloud implementation, NGBSS SNS enhancement and customer capacity expansion from 80 million to 110 million, TeleCloud and Private Cloud, Disaster Recovery (DR) expansion, construction of a new E-Commerce Platform, DNS System Upgrade Solution, Webhosting Upgrade and Migration, and Authentication, Authorization & Accounting (AAA) systems. Data Center and Cloud Services In line with efforts to realize the Digital Ethiopia vision, and based on the rapidly growing demand for data center and cloud services, our data center capacity was expanded during the fiscal year to 5 MW IT Load, 624 IT Racks, and 26,208 U. To enable institutions to digitize their operations, cloud infrastructure expansion work has been implemented. This has resulted in the build-out of a data center capacity of 31,616 vCPU for elastic compute, 4.5 PB of storage, and 3 PB of enterprise storage. Service Quality Improvement Initiatives In terms of improving mobile service quality, the Mobile Network Availability Ratio (NAR) was targeted to reach 95.8%, with an actual achievement of 95.1%, resulting in an average performance of 99.4%. Network Traffic Growth During the fiscal year, 172 billion minutes of mobile voice calls were made, and 810.5 million minutes of international voice calls were received into the country. Additionally, 39.5 billion short text messages and 1.43 trillion megabytes of mobile data traffic were recorded. Compared to the same period last year, this performance shows a 6.9% increase in mobile voice calls, a 30% decrease in international incoming calls, a 54.7% growth in short messages, and a 52.8% growth in mobile data. The significant surge in data traffic performance is attributed to several key factors: an increase in customer numbers and evolving data usage behavior, the deployment of additional network infrastructure, the introduction of new products and services to the market, continuous network optimization efforts, a consistent reduction in prices since 2018 to ensure affordability for customers, and growing collaboration with partners. Enhancing Products and Services During the fiscal year, to meet our customers’ needs and expand new revenue streams, we launched a total of 365 products and services to the market. Out of these, 134 were new, 157 improved, and 74 promotional offerings. Specifically, 93 products and services were launched for individual customers. Additionally, we brought to market 76 enterprise connectivity solutions, 47 digital lifestyle services, 53 cloud and digital solutions, 59 telebirr products and services, and 37 international services – all designed to accelerate our nation’s digital transformation and boost competitiveness. We also supplied 856.5 thousand telecom and digital service devices. Beyond connectivity, our company launched TeleCloud services, providing institutions with solutions for computing, databases, and backup databases. Over 650 government and private institutions are utilizing TeleCloud services, thereby avoiding the significant costs associated with building data centers and ensuring national data security. Service Centers During the fiscal year, we expanded the overall reach of our service centers to 1,038. Of these, 553 are franchised, 443 are company-owned, and 42 are managed by indirect channel partners. Based on our implemented distribution strategy, we now have 107 main distributors and virtual top-up distributors, 12.7 thousand sub-distributors, and 291.1 thousand retailers actively engaged in sales. This has increased the total number of our partners to 303.9 thousand. Macroeconomic Reform It’s well known that our company has been consistently introducing price reductions since 2018 to ensure affordability for our customers, even before entering a competitive market. This strategy not only increased customer numbers and usage but also played a significant role in the implementation of the national digital transformation. Following the introduction of a market-based foreign exchange rate policy in the fiscal year, and recognizing that our company imports technology inputs using foreign currency, price adjustments were made on certain products and services to ensure sustainable growth. These price adjustments carefully considered customers’ affordability, ensuring that 22 mobile products and services/packages, used by the majority of customers, remained unaffected by any price changes. Customer Base Our company achieved significant growth in the fiscal year, reaching a total customer base of 83.2 million, which represents a 100.2% achievement against our plan. This positive outcome shows a growth of 4.84 million customers, or 6.2%, compared to the same period last year. Customers by Service Type Analyzing customers by service type, mobile voice subscribers increased by 24.5% to 80.3 million, and mobile data and internet users grew by 82% to 46.6 million. Fixed broadband customers reached 847.1 thousand, a 67.2% increase. Due to changing customer preferences, fixed-line voice customers decreased by 18.4% to 722.1 thousand. Through these services, the telecom service penetration (teledensity) rate increased by 10.4% from 63.3% to 73.7%. In the fiscal year, a total of 19.1 million service sales were made, representing a 0.4% increase compared to the same period last year and an outstanding 106% performance against the plan. Revenue Performance To boost revenue, our company has implemented various business strategies. We focused on growing and retaining our customer base, expanding and enhancing heavily invested infrastructure, and generating additional revenue streams through leasing these infrastructures. Based on the provisional financial report for the fiscal year, a total revenue of 162 billion Birr was generated, achieving 99% of the plan. This revenue represents a 72.9% growth compared to the same period in the previous fiscal year. During the fiscal year, 193.1 million US dollars came from international services, achieving 101.8% of its target. When analyzing the revenue by service type: Voice services contributed 28.6%, Data & Internet 22.7%, International revenue 12.9%, Value-Added Services (VAS) 7.6%, device sales 5.4%, telebirr 2.7%, Enterprise Solutions 6.2%, Infrastructure share 2.2%, and other services 11.7%. Foreign Currency Generation In terms of foreign currency generation, a total of 213.6 million US dollars was obtained during the fiscal year, achieving 84.3% of our target. This shows an increase of 15.44 million dollars (7.8%) compared to the same period in the previous fiscal year. During the budget year, 193.11 million dollars was generated from international services with 66.6 million dollars specifically from international transit traffic, 5.62 million dollars from infrastructure sharing, and over 14.42 million dollars through telebirr’s international remittance service. In total, over the past three years, 575.76 million dollars in foreign currency has been generated. Cost Excellence: DO2SAVE Beyond increasing revenue, our company has designed and implemented effective cost-saving strategies that enhance efficiency and productivity. During the fiscal year, over 11.3 billion Birr were saved, achieving 151% of our target. Key factors contributing to this success include the implementation of effective resource utilization strategies, collaboration with partners, and the digitalization of daily operations. In addition to cost-saving initiatives, efforts to diversify revenue sources and create supplementary income for the company resulted in over 230.02 million Birr from the sale of non-operational assets and office rentals during the fiscal year. Financial Performance Financial Statements (Unaudited Statement of Profit or Loss) To ensure its financial health, our company, based on its established efficient operating system, has prepared its financial reports up to the fiscal year 2024 in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). These reports have been audited by external auditors and confirmed to be unqualified. Furthermore, the company closely monitors key performance indicators daily, such as customer numbers, daily revenue, and daily cash flow. The interim audit for the first half of the 2025 fiscal year has been completed, and the annual financial report is currently undergoing an audit. When excluding foreign exchange losses, our company’s financial performance for the fiscal year demonstrates strong revenue growth and profitability. The company achieved an EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) of 76 billion Birr, hitting 104% of its target as it aimed to strengthen profitability. This represents an increase of 34.8 billion Birr or 84% growth compared to the previous fiscal year’s EBITDA of 41.2 billion Birr. telebirr: Building an Inclusive Digital Economy telebirr is playing a pivotal role in driving radical change in digital financial inclusion, simplifying the daily lives of the community, enhancing institutional operational efficiency, and accelerating Ethiopia’s digital economy. By offering telebirr services, our company has made digital financial transactions fast, simple, and reliable, enabling the creation of a “cashless society.” Beyond that, it bridges the accessibility gap of traditional banking services and allow citizens to easily access digital finance and mobile money services through self-service options, nearby agents, and service centers nationwide. telebirr Subscribers During the fiscal year, telebirr registered an additional 7.29 million customers which brings the total number of telebirr service users to 54.84 million. This achieved 99.7% of our plan and shows a 15.3% growth compared to the previous fiscal year. Several factors contributed to this increase in customer numbers. These include the growing focus on the digital ecosystem in our country, collaborations with numerous institutions, the increasing adoption of digital payment systems, the development of a user-friendly SuperApp, and the modernization of our 127 call centers. Significant efforts have been made to further expand telebirr’s accessibility and increase the number of our company’s partners and enable them to offer various services using telebirr. As a result, this fiscal year, we registered 108.3 thousand new agents, 13 main agents, and 117.4 thousand merchants, and brought them into operation. This expanded the total number of agents to 320.3 thousand, main agents to 170, and merchants to 310.1 thousand. telebirr Transactions During the fiscal year, 2.38 trillion ETB electronic money transactions was made in telebirr, achieving 116.9% of its plan. The total annual transaction volume reached 1.06 billion ETB. Since its launch, telebirr has facilitated the transaction of 4.93 trillion ETB in electronic money within the economy, with a cumulative four year transaction volume of 1.98 billion ETB. telebirr’s customer transaction value snapshot informs an annual total transaction value of 1.66 trillion ETB. Within this, Digital In transactions, such as bank-to-telebirr transfers, bulk disbursements, and incoming international remittances, account for 27.1%. Digital Out transactions, including telebirr-to-bank transfers, airtime top-ups, and utility bill payments, comprise 18.9%. Lastly, Circulating transactions, like merchant payments and person-to-person (P2P) transfers, make up 35.8%. This data reflects a well-balanced, healthy, and digitally driven transaction ecosystem. With its high circulation of funds, significant share of commercial transactions, and robust interoperability with various stakeholders, telebirr is tangibly demonstrating its role as a key driving engine for Ethiopia’s digital financial transformation. According to the GSMA Global Mobile Money Report (April 2025), “Circulating” is the leading mobile money transaction type globally, representing 28% of the total value. Remarkably, telebirr has surpassed this benchmark, with circulating transactions accounting for an impressive 35.8% of its total transaction value in 2024/25. telebirr’s Digital Financial Service Performance telebirr, in collaboration with banks, has introduced mobile micro-loans, micro-savings services, and related digital financial services. These offerings play a significant role in the holistic transformation and improvement of our community, going beyond mere access to financial services to bring about meaningful economic change. In the past fiscal year, 6.88 million customers received over 13.22 billion ETB in micro-loans, and 1.77 million customers engaged in digital savings totaling 11.24 billion ETB. Since its launch, telebirr has facilitated over 25.8 billion ETB in micro-loans for more than 11.92 million customers, and over 24.59 billion ETB in digital savings for 3.91 million customers within four years. These achievements are not just numbers; they represent lives transformed, barriers dismantled, and the positive impact of digital finance in building a more inclusive and equitable future for Ethiopia. telebirr SuperApp The telebirr SuperApp currently boasts over 8 million users and incorporates more than 68 mini-apps. By creating “Zemen GEBEYA“, a unique national digital e-commerce platform, we’ve stimulated the commercial ecosystem, driven digital transactions, and created job opportunities. Human Capital Development Continuous capacity building has been undertaken to enhance the company’s human resources with knowledge, skills, and high standards of professional conduct, thereby enabling the achievement of the company’s mission. During the fiscal year, 54,900 training instances were provided to employees (this figure accounts for instances where a single employee participates in multiple training sessions). Furthermore, 487 professionals obtained certification through 60 specialized programs that validate specific professional competencies. Based on a strategic agreement with LinkedIn, 85% of employees are actively engaged in online training courses tailored to their respective professional fields. As part of a national initiative providing free training to five million Ethiopians, 936 of the company’s employees earned 1,828 certificates. The company also supported this program by providing 114.45 GB of free internet to 484,274 participants, a contribution valued at a total of ETB 21,737,830. The company is implementing a strategy designed to advance female employees into leadership positions. This effort has yielded concrete results, with the proportion of women in director-level roles increasing from 4% to 13% following recent appointments. To build on this progress, a follow-up survey has been conducted. During the fiscal year, a series of strategic workshops led by the Chief Executive Officer were held. These sessions focused on improving project execution, resource utilization, process optimization, customer experience, technology, enterprise solutions, and the development of products and services. Income and Job Opportunity In addition to its key enabling role of contributing to the nation’s comprehensive growth by building a digital economy ecosystem, our company is upholding its national responsibility by creating sustainable employment and income opportunities for citizens. In this regard, beyond the direct job opportunities available through permanent and temporary employment, the company has facilitated the creation of work and revenue streams for numerous citizens through diverse channels such as product and service distribution and various partnership models. Throughout the growth strategy period, it was possible to create job and income opportunities for over one million citizens. These opportunities were generated across a wide range of fields, including operational roles such as security, network deployment, maintenance, and construction. Additional opportunities arose from permanent and temporary positions facilitated through third parties, as well as extensive engagement in business activities such as the distribution of standard and telebirr products and services, and various other partnership ventures. Cybersecurity During the fiscal year, the company successfully prevented over 461,152 cyber-attack attempts by developing skilled human capital, establishing efficient operational procedures, and implementing modern technological solutions. As a result, it completely prevented potential data breaches, service disruptions, and revenue losses. Central to this achievement was the establishment of a continuous cybersecurity monitoring system and the development of capabilities to proactively detect and prevent attacks using advanced technologies. A key role was also played by the implementation of a strategy to mitigate potential threats, which involved incorporating international best practices and ensuring strict adherence to compliance standards such as ISO 27001. Furthermore, our company expanded its revenue streams by offering information security services, which were delivered in full compliance with established security standards. This includes providing SSL certificate services to multiple government agencies and educational institutions, as well as delivering a secure IP VPN solution to the National Statistics Agency. During the LEAD Growth strategy period, the company obtained several international certifications for its telebirr and telecloud services, including ISO 27001:2022, PCI DSS, and the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) attestation. These achievements practically demonstrate the company’s institutional capability to support the nation’s digital transformation vision by delivering services that adhere to global standards. Corporate Social Responsibility Our company is deeply committed to corporate social responsibility (CSR), actively working to address community challenges and transform lives. We consistently engage in nationwide initiatives that deliver lasting benefits to society, demonstrating our unwavering dedication to integrated CSR. Our support primarily targets fundamental sectors that create long-term impact and foster sustainable development, ultimately improving livelihoods. These key areas include education, healthcare, environmental protection, green initiatives, eco-tourism, and humanitarian services. We provide this vital support through various means, including financial contributions, in-kind donations, and direct service provision. Accordingly, during the fiscal year, we contributed over 450.23 million Birr, comprising 264.1 million Birr in kind and 186.1 million Birr in cash. Of this total, 134.68 million Birr was allocated to education, 17.68 million Birr to health, 135.77 million Birr to humanitarian causes, 16.75 million Birr to environmental protection, green development, and beautification, and 145.35 million Birr to national projects. Our company fulfilled its social responsibility by engaging employees and partners in environmental protection activities and the Green Legacy program, facilitating tree planting across the country. In the fiscal year’s 6th round, over 446,000 seedlings were planted at 105 sites. Furthermore, our employees demonstrated exemplary service by providing 3.4 million Birr in financial and material support to economically challenged segments of society, donating blood, and offering voluntary services. Over the past three years, Ethio telecom has strategically invested 1.5 billion Birr in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives. These contributions have directly supported critical areas such as humanitarian aid, education, health, and environmental protection, alongside other vital social causes. National Digital ID Registration To realize the Digital Ethiopia 2025 Strategy and ensure the success of the National Digital ID Program which is one of the critical pillars identified for building an inclusive digital economy, our company is fulfilling its national responsibility by focusing on accelerating and expanding the registration and printing process nationwide. To this end, by purchasing 2,000 biometric registration machines and obtaining an additional 1,500 machines by borrowing from the National ID Program Office, while also securing the necessary resources and trained personnel, registration is underway in 12 regions and two city administrations. This is being conducted at our 575 sales centers, as well as in 769 cities, 104 zones, and 670 woredas. Furthermore, the service is being implemented at a total of 16 printing sites and 270 collection centers; specifically, there are 7 sites in all zones of Addis Ababa and 9 sites in the regions. In total, 11 million customers have been registered to date, and 9.7 million of them have been provided with their Fayda numbers. During the fiscal year, 2.94 billion ETB was generated from the National Digital ID registration by enrolling 10.4 million citizens. Currently, the average daily registration rate has reached 70,000. Key Achievements of the Three-Year LEAD Growth Strategy (2022-2025)! The LEAD Growth 2025 Strategy marked a crucial phase where our company operated and gained experience in a competitive market for the first time, enabling it to maintain its leadership position within this competitive landscape. This strategy was particularly instrumental in realizing our vision to become a leading digital solutions provider beyond basic communication services. It was a period where we extensively expanded digital infrastructure, introduced new business sectors to ensure financial sustainability, significantly grew the telebirr mobile money service, and, in partnership with banks, launched micro-loan and savings services to ensure financial inclusion. We solidified our commitment to the realization of Digital Ethiopia by achieving key goals outlined in the Digital Ethiopia 2025 strategy. We also enhanced digital inclusion by widely implementing 4G LTE and 5G mobile network and rural connectivity expansion works, significantly boosting the country’s network coverage. Furthermore, we introduced new customer-centric and timely technology products and services, ensuring their viability, and increased smartphone penetration by providing affordable modern handsets. We also boosted brand acceptance by actively participating in key social development sectors that ensure sustainable community benefit, especially in green development. We diligently strived to meet customer needs by regularly conducting independent customer satisfaction surveys. We introduced “Zemen Gebeya,” a convenient and efficient digital e-commerce platform for both consumers and the merchant community. This period concluded as a critical chapter of success, demonstrating reliable growth in both customer numbers and revenue. Infrastructure Expansion and Coverage Through strategic measures taken during the three-year LEAD Growth Strategy, we built an additional 35.2 million mobile network customer capacity through telecom and digital infrastructure expansions. This increased the previous BRIDGE Strategy’s capacity of 69.6 million to 104.8 million. By constructing a total of 2,514 new mobile sites, the number of mobile sites grew from 7,496 under the BRIDGE Strategy to 10,010. This effort increased the Mobile Network Population Coverage from 99.1% during the BRIDGE Strategy to 99.4% (a 0.3% increase). Network Geographical Coverage also improved by 1.1%, from 85.4% to 86.5%. Notably, a remarkable push to increase 4G Population Coverage during the strategy period enabled 871 additional cities to benefit from 4G service, bringing the total to 936 cities with 4G access. This boosted 4G Population Coverage from 19.9% to 70.8% and Geographical Coverage from 1.44% to 21.06%. Furthermore, the number of our 5G mobile sites with Massive MIMO have reached 315 and implementing our company has strengthened its leadership in network expansion and modernization. Service Usage and Digital Transformation Observing the trend of customer service usage growth, the increase in mobile data and internet services compared to voice services indicates a shift in customer usage from voice to broadband. This demonstrates the change in our community’s lifestyle as Ethiopia undergoes digital transformation and signifies our institution’s implementation of a future-ready strategy. On another note, in our efforts to enable our rural communities to benefit from digital solutions and financial services, we expanded the number of rural mobile sites in 12 regions to 954 under the LEAD Growth Strategy, from 77 sites in 11 regions during the BRIDGE Strategy. This has made services accessible to 6.5 million residents living in 529 districts and 2,677 Kebeles. In fixed network services, 724.2K Optical Distribution Network (ODN) capacity was built, increasing the ODN capacity from 228K at the end of the BRIDGE Strategy to 952 thousand. During the LEAD Growth Strategy, a total of 2,099.34 km of backbone fiber was deployed. This, including OPGW, brought the total length of deployed backbone fiber to 22,673.1 km. Additionally, metro fiber reached 14,240 km. Traffic and Financial Performance Over the three years, 452.7 billion minutes of mobile voice calls, 2.76 billion minutes of international incoming voice calls, 77.69 billion short text messages, and 2.96 trillion megabytes of mobile data traffic were recorded. Compared to the same period of the BRIDGE Strategy, voice calls increased by 107.6%, international incoming voice calls by 10.7%, domestic short text messages by 261.2%, and mobile data traffic by 446.2%. The significant increase in data traffic performance is attributed to growth in customer numbers and data usage behavior, deployment of additional network infrastructures, introduction of new products and services to the market, continuous network optimization efforts, consistent price reductions implemented since 2018 to ensure affordability for customers, and increased collaboration with partners. In efforts to realize our country’s digital transformation, and based on the rapidly growing demand for data center and cloud services, an additional 3 MW IT Load, 384 IT Rack, and 16,128 U capacity was built during the strategy period. This increased our total data center capacity to 5 MW IT Load, 624 IT Racks, and 26,208 U. By implementing cloud infrastructure expansion works, we built a data center capacity of 31,616 vCPU for elastic compute, 4.5 PB of storage, and 3 PB of enterprise storage, enabling over 650 government and private institutions to digitize their operations. Product, Service, and Social Impact In total, 838 products and services were introduced to the market during the strategy period. Of these, 432 were new and 359 were improved, providing diverse services and ensuring customer-centric, inclusive digital solutions. This shows that nearly three times more products and services were introduced to the market compared to the 275 products and services available during the BRIDGE Strategy period. To expand the accessibility of our services, 386 additional service centers were opened during the strategy period, increasing the number of service centers from 652 during the BRIDGE Strategy to 1,038. By undertaking the aforementioned telecom and digital infrastructure expansions, we attracted 16.6 million new customers, bringing our total customer count to 83.2 million, which represents a 24.9% growth compared to the final year performance of the previous BRIDGE Strategy. Smartphone penetration, which was 36.3% at the end of the BRIDGE Strategy, reached 41% or 33 million by the end of the 2025 fiscal year, thanks to the various affordable smartphone options provided by our company. Overall, 331.5 billion Birr in revenue was generated during the LEAD Strategy period, representing a 100% growth compared to the same period of the BRIDGE Strategy. Among the strategic measures that significantly contributed to revenue growth over the past three years are the launch of telebirr financial services, an increase in National Interconnection traffic, infrastructure leasing, the reinstatement of over 900 mobile sites, increased revenue from international incoming calls, the widespread implementation of Enterprise Solutions, and the expansion of 4G and 5G mobile networks. Our company has been implementing a resource management and cost reduction program for the past four years to foster a culture of cost savings. Over the past three years, 22.4 billion Birr in costs were saved, achieving 131% of the plan. Similarly, over the three-year period, 729.8 million Birr in revenue was generated through creating new revenue options and supporting core business operations. Over the past years, investments in telecom and digital infrastructure expansion have significantly boosted our company’s total assets from 215 billion Birr to 329 billion Birr. Additionally, our equity have grown from 7 billion Birr to 115 billion Birr. telebirr has succeeded in creating a cash lite society by making the digital payment system simple, fast, convenient, and reliable. During the LEAD Strategy period, it attracted an additional 33.9 million customers, bringing the total number of telebirr users to 54.84 million, representing a 161.9% growth compared to 20.94 million at the end of the BRIDGE Strategy. The total electronic money transfer conducted through telebirr grew from 24.67 billion Birr in 2021/22 to 2.38 trillion Birr, and the transaction volume increased from 85.07 million to 1.06 billion. In total, since its launch four years ago, telebirr has enabled over 11.92 million customers to receive more than 25.8 billion Birr in micro-loans, and 3.91 million customers to engage in micro-savings totaling over 24.59 billion Birr. These achievements are not just numbers; they represent transformed lives, overcome barriers, and the positive impact of digital finance in building a more inclusive and equitable Ethiopia. One of the benefits gained from the LEAD Strategy is the “Zemen Gebeya” digital marketplace, which can modernize and elevate the traditional transaction system. This is a digital market solution that connects product and service providers, including micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), with consumers, creating new market opportunities and enabling them to benefit from the digital economy. In the final fiscal year of the LEAD Strategy, two new Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations were installed and became operational. These stations feature super-fast and ultra-fast chargers with a total capacity of 1000 KW. The stations can charge 32 cars simultaneously and make a significant contribution to green mobility initiatives. By the end of the fiscal year, these stations had served nearly 73,000 vehicles and contributed to a reduction of approximately 2.6 million kg of carbon emissions. On another note, our company increased its brand acceptance by actively participating in key social development sectors that ensure sustainable community benefit during the strategy period, particularly in green development. Over the past three years, it fulfilled its social responsibility by contributing a total of over 1.58 billion Birr to projects such as education, health, environmental protection, and green development and beautification. Challenges and Measures Taken During the fiscal year, operational performance was impacted by several primary challenges. These included damages to telecom infrastructure resulting from development work, accidents, security issues, and cable theft, as well as macroeconomic factors such as foreign exchange shortages, power interruptions, and fuel shortages. The capacity limitations of local contractors also presented a significant challenge. Furthermore, with regard to the telebirr digital finance service, several factors had an impact. These included fraudulent activities related to digital transfers, constraints on bank fund supply, the absence of a national framework for Know Your Customer (KYC) verification, a decline in international traffic, and certain restrictions and regulations imposed by the National Bank of Ethiopia and Ethiopian Communications Authority. To address these challenges, efforts were made to work closely with federal and regional government entities and to source some telecom inputs from local suppliers. Positive outcomes are being achieved from discussions with legislative bodies, and extensive awareness campaigns have been conducted to protect customers from fraud. Additionally, the implementation of new strategies to increase international traffic has brought significant results. Key Success Factors The key factors contributing to our company’s success include visionary leadership and agile governance, engaged and empowered employees, organizational agility and adaptive strategy, effective project negotiation and execution, robust partnerships and stakeholder management, affordable pricing that considers low-income customers, loyal customers, the company’s social responsibility and good brand reputation, digital transformation and diversified solutions and financial sustainability and operational efficiency. Awards and Recognitions Over the past three years, for its multifaceted activities, contributions, and numerous achievements, our company and our CEO have received significant recognition and several awards. Notable among these are:- Received Platinum-levelrecognition for being the leading taxpayer in 2016 (E.C.), as well as special awards for being a top taxpayer for four consecutive years from 2013 to 2016 (E.C.).
- Awarded the “Ethiopian Institutions Success Award”from the Office of the Prime Minister for our achievements at the international level.
- Recognized by AVAYAat the GITEX 2023 Expo in Dubai for our efforts to improve the holistic customer experience.
- Received the “Ethiopian Green Award 2025”in recognition of our contributions to using renewable energy, building electric vehicle charging stations, proper e-waste disposal, and our Green Legacy initiative, affirming our commitment to environmental protection.
- Recognized in two categories at the 15thannual Africa’s Best Brands Awards: as the “Most Admired Brand” in the telecommunications sector and for our positive contributions to the community and the environment.
- Our CEO was recognized by Forbes Africaas a top young African leader for her key role in the continent’s economic development. During the same strategy period, she also received the “Most Respected CEO’s Award.”
- In recognition of her influence, results-oriented leadership, and proven track record, our CEO was re-elected for a second term to the GSMA Board of Directorsand was also appointed to the GSMA Foundation Board.
ETHIO TELECOM
July 24, 2025