STORY: Ethiopia's state-owned telecom company reports rising annual revenue
DATELINE: July 21, 2023
LENGTH: 00:01:40
LOCATION: Addis Ababa
CATEGORY: ECONOMY
 
SHOTLIST:
1. various of Ethiopia's state-owned telecom company reporting rising annual revenue
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (Amharic): FREHIWOT TAMIRU, Ethio-Telecom chief executive officer (CEO)
3. SOUNDBITE 2 (Amharic): FREHIWOT TAMIRU, Ethio-Telecom chief executive officer (CEO)
 
STORYLINE:
 
Ethiopia's state-owned Ethio-Telecom reported an annual revenue of 75.8 billion birrs (about 1.38 billion U.S. dollars) during the past Ethiopian fiscal year, which ended on July 7.
 
Ethio-Telecom chief executive officer (CEO) Frehiwot Tamiru announced the company's 2022/2023 fiscal year business performance on Tuesday.
 
SOUNDBITE 1 (Amharic) FREHIWOT TAMIRU, Ethio-Telecom chief executive officer (CEO)
"By offering 203 products and services, we have managed to earn 75.8 billion birrs during the budget year and we have achieved 101 percent of our target, up from 61.3 billion birrs (about 1.11 billion U.S. dollars), which was earned in the previous budget year."
 
She said the company has enjoyed consistent growth and profitability over the past five years with last year's fiscal year profit hitting 18.78 billion birrs (about 340 million U.S. dollars).
 
According to the CEO, Ethio-Telecom has championed growth over the years by introducing new technologies, expanding mobile network coverage and offering customer-oriented services.
 
The CEO said Ethio-Telecom's mobile subscribers have reached 72 million, with 69.5 million of them being voice subscribers and 33.2 million data and internet users.
 
As part of its ambition to provide modern telecom service to its users, Ethio-Telecom has been partnering with Chinese tech companies, mainly Huawei and ZTE, and realizing its 4G and 5G LTE telecom services and expansion of high-tech telecom facilities.
 
SOUNDBITE 2 (Amharic) FREHIWOT TAMIRU, Ethio-Telecom chief executive officer (CEO)
"We have carried out several telecom expansion projects with ZTE and Huawei. We have worked and continued to work with them (ZTE and Huawei) and others on the expansion of 4G and 5G telecom services."
 
According to the company's data, subscribers to Telebirr, Ethio-Telecom's mobile financial service launched in May 2021, also reached 34.3 million and these customers made transactions worth 679.2 billion birrs (about 12.34 billion U.S. dollars) during the 2022/2023 fiscal year.
 
Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Addis Ababa.
(XHTV)