Ethiopia\u2019s parliament approved a draft law that enables foreign companies to invest in the telecommunications industry of Africa\u2019s second-most populous nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The legislation establishes an independent communications regulator, accountable to the prime minister, that will be responsible for promoting competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lawmakers on June 13 \u201capproved into law the Ethiopian Communication Regulatory Proclamation,\u201d Innovation and Technology Minister Getahun Mekuria said in a tweet. \u201cThis is a huge step in reforming the telecom sector.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The legislation is the latest in a series of sweeping reforms Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has implemented since he became leader in April 2018, as he seeks to loosen state control of the economy. He\u2019s pledged to split the government-owned monopoly, Ethiopia Telecommunications Corp., and sell shares in the two new entities piecemeal to international operators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ethiopia offers a rare opportunity for foreign investors to access one of the continent\u2019s biggest markets. With one of Africa\u2019s fastest-growing economies and more than 100 million people, it\u2019s coveted by firms including\u00a0MTN Group Ltd.\u00a0and\u00a0Vodacom Group Ltd., the continent\u2019s largest mobile-phone companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the companies that have already shown interest in getting in the Ethiopian Telecom space include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

• Vodafone Group \u2013 Britain<\/li>
• MTN Group \u2013 South Africa<\/li>
• Etisalat \u2013 United Arab Emirates<\/li>
• Orange \u2013 France<\/li>
• Zain \u2013 Kuwait<\/li>
• Safaricom\u00a0\u2013 Kenya<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Ethiopia\u2019s parliament approved a draft law that enables foreign companies to invest in the telecommunications industry of Africa\u2019s second-most populous nation. The legislation establishes an independent communications regulator, accountable to the prime minister, that will be responsible for promoting competition. Lawmakers on June 13 \u201capproved into law the Ethiopian Communication Regulatory Proclamation,\u201d Innovation and Technology …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":13276,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-embassy-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ethiopianembassy.be\/wp-content\/uploads\/ethiotelecom.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ethiopianembassy.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ethiopianembassy.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ethiopianembassy.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopianembassy.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopianembassy.be\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13275"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopianembassy.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13277,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopianembassy.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13275\/revisions\/13277"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopianembassy.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ethiopianembassy.be\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopianembassy.be\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopianembassy.be\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}