Safaricom group taps Sh55bn loan for Ethiopia entry
Monday December 21 2020
By VICTOR JUMA
Summary
Safaricom and its parent companies Vodafone Group Plc and Vodacom Group Limited have formed a joint venture – Global Partnership for Ethiopia through which they are bidding for one of two telecommunications licences being auctioned in that country.
The financial investment in Ethiopia is expected to top the $1 billion (Sh111 billion) mark, with the DFC loan deal seen as part of the project’s fundraising efforts.
Safaricom had earlier said it was ready to take more debt in its role as the majority shareholder of the consortium with a 51 percent stake.
US backs Vodafone-led bid for Ethiopia licence with $500m Sign in with LinkedIn
15 December 2020 | Alan Burkitt-Gray A US government agency is supporting Vodafone’s consortium that is bidding for one of Ethiopia’s two new telecoms licences with a loan of US$500 million.
The money comes from the International Development Finance Corporation (IFC), based in Washington DC, which earlier this week spent $300 million on Africa Data Centres though that was an investment, not a loan.
Ethiopia is most of the way through liberalising its telecoms market, which until now has been a monopoly in the hands of state-owned Ethio Telecom.
Telecompaper
General
US DFC lends USD 500 mln to Vodafone consortium for Ethiopian bid, USD 300 mln to Liquid Telecom Tuesday 15 December 2020 | 09:36 CET | News The US government s international Development Finance Corporation (DFC) has released USD 500 million to back a consortium of regional and international telecommunication firms bidding for a mobile licence in Ethiopia, and has advanced USD 300 million to support Liquid Telecom s data centre expansion in Africa, ITWeb reported. The loan to the Vodafone-led Global Partnership for Ethiopia will be used to finance the design, development, and operation of a new private mobile network provider there and for the acquisition of a mobile network provider licence, the DFC said.
Iliad (Free) stirs the 5G pot in France
Oi mobile gets snapped up by rival trio
Ericsson offers some pre-Xmas jobs joy in the UK
A crackdown on the Big tech firms by the European Commission, 5G competition in France and M&A in Brazil are at the front of today’s lengthy news queue.
The
European Commission is set to crack down hard on the Big Tech companies starting in 2021 with the threat of major fines – up to 10% of global turnover – if they break rules outlined in the
Digital Services Act and the
Digital Markets Act.
“Many online platforms have come to play a central role in the lives of our citizens and businesses, and even our society and democracy at large. With today s proposals, we are organising our digital space for the next decades. With harmonised rules, ex ante obligations, better oversight, speedy enforcement, and deterrent sanctions, we will ensure that anyone offering and using digital services in Europe benefits from security, trust, innovation a
Kenya’s proposed privacy Bill
Kenya’s government wants to solve the problem of not being able access private information stored on devices such as mobile phones, and it wants to do this with a new bill.
What’s in this bill: Kenyans who own mobile phones or communication gadgets will be required to provide any information or data needed by the government in the interest of national security. This includes emails, SMS, WhatsApp messages, or any data that the government deems a threat to national security.
Failure to provide such information as required by the government will lead to imprisonment for a period of up to one year or a fine of KShs 1 million ($8,963), or both.