Ethio Telecom has announced an ambitious annual business plan for the 2019 Ethiopian fiscal year (2026/27), targeting a gross revenue of 295 billion Ethiopian Birr (ETB). Presented by Chief Executive Officer Frehiwot Tamru as part of the second year of the “Lead the Future: Digital and Beyond 2028” strategy, this revenue goal reflects a 36.7% increase (79.2 billion ETB) compared to the previous period. Beyond revenue expansion, the state-owned giant aims to generate $253.7 million in foreign currency, pay 83.8 billion ETB in national taxes, and distribute 43.1 billion ETB in dividends.
The bold projections underscore Ethio Telecom’s strategic evolution from a conventional telecom operator into a comprehensive technology firm (“Telco-to-TechCo”). Digital and related non-traditional business streams are projected to generate 26.3% of total revenue, accounting for 77.45 billion ETB. A critical component of this transition involves the rapid growth of Telebirr, the company’s digital financial platform. Ethio Telecom plans to expand Telebirr’s user base to 67.69 million subscribers, anticipate a transaction volume of 7.4 trillion ETB, facilitate 33.08 billion ETB in digital credit services, and accumulate 26.42 billion ETB in total savings.
Infrastructure development and network modernization remain foundational to supporting these commercial targets. To accommodate an expected 6.7% subscriber base growth—reaching 96.2 million total customers—the company plans to expand its 4G (LTE) network coverage to 95% of the population by raising the number of sites from 6,924 to 11,014. Additionally, 5G services will be scaled across 73 cities with 648 sites, while international gateway capacity is slated to expand to 5.2 Tbps. Infrastructure expansion in rural regions will feature 1,685 new sites targeting 4.5 million previously underserved citizens.
To sustain this digital ecosystem, Ethio Telecom is heavily investing in digital commercial services and device accessibility. The platform’s e-commerce application, “Zemen Gebeya,” is targeted to achieve a Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) of 1.4 billion ETB. Furthermore, the company plans to introduce 2.6 million connectivity devices into the market, including 1 million affordable cloud-based “Nexus” smartphones. These initiatives collectively aim to increase the mobile data subscriber base to 60.01 million and fixed broadband connections to 1.26 million, solidifying the operator’s digital transformation roadmap.