Ethiopian Review

Ethiopia has the lowest mobile phone density, measured as number of subscribers per 100 inhabitants, in Africa, according to a report by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). According to the ITU report data as of 2007, Ethiopia has just 1.45 mobile phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants, with just about 1.2 million subscribers. Egypt which has about the same population as Ethiopia has more than 30 million subscribers and neighboring Kenya with less than half the population of Ethiopia has 11 million subscribers with a mobile tele-density of 30.23.

Despite repeated announcements from Ethiopian Telecommunication reported in the media about huge infrastructure investment in Information Communication Technology (ICT) and expanding service, Ethiopia remains at the bottom of the table in Africa in ICT.

Just recently Harvard and Oxford educated economist Damisa Moyo of Zambia spoke about the dismal state of Ethiopian Telecommunication in a VOA interview. She was quoted as saying,

“In Ethiopia, she says that could be done by selling phone licenses to companies. With competition, phone rates would drop. At the same time, the government could raise revenues by taxing phone calls.

“Ethiopia,” she says, “is the second-largest population in sub-Saharan Africa. Nigeria has about 100 million people. Ethiopia has about 90 million people. The mobile phone penetration rate is two percent in Ethiopia, so about two percent of the population has a mobile phone, compared to the average in Africa, which is about 30 percent — One in three Africans has a phone. Compared to the fact that there are now 30 countries that have over 100 percent mobile phone penetration rates [meaning people have more than one mobile phone].

“Why am I telling this story? Because we have a lot of evidence now that mobile phones are very, very important and they can be very, very influential in terms of providing jobs and generating an income. I’ll give you a specific example.

“But here we have a government [Ethiopia] with 90 million people …..that is also one of the governments that is at the G20 asking for bailout money.

Is it time to liberalize the telecom sector in Ethiopia? What must be done to improve ICT in Ethiopia. Have Your Say.

- Nazret