Safaricom Has Expanded Fibre Network to 834KMS in Ethiopia

Safaricom Ethiopia expanded its fibre infrastructure to 834 kilometres and built 3,146 network sites nationwide by March 2025 as it boosted connectivity and mobile money adoption, according to its 2025 Sustainable Business Report.

The expansion comes as the company seeks to build scale following the liberalisation of Ethiopia’s telecommunications sector, though foreign-exchange losses and security challenges weighed on financial performance.

It reported 8.85 million customers active over a 90-day period at year-end, while its mobile money service, M-PESA, had 4.73 million active customers. The company’s investments span network infrastructure, education, employment, renewable energy and community assistance.

Safaricom equipped 76 high schools across eight regions with 738 laptops and 164 routers, providing each school with six months of unlimited data. It also distributed 72,000 exercise books and 9,000 pens to 6,000 students from low-income backgrounds.

The company enrolled 5,705 young people in its Safaricom Talent Cloud programme, which provides information technology training intended to improve employment prospects. Its business operations also created more than 800 direct jobs and 4,100 indirect jobs, while the company engaged more than 12,000 brand ambassadors.

Safaricom Ethiopia reported supporting 25,288 client organisations, including 1,094 large corporations, 6,781 small and medium-sized enterprises, 17,226 microenterprises and 187 community service enterprises in sectors such as healthcare and education. The company also recorded 104,367 business registrations, including micro-merchants, as it expanded its commercial network.

In agriculture, Safaricom provided digital lending to 224 smallholder farmers through its LERESHA programme, extending financial services to producers. The company’s mobile money operations are part of its broader strategy to build digital payment and financial services in a market where access to formal banking remains uneven.

The report also highlights investment in renewable energy. Safaricom had commissioned 253 solar-powered network sites by the end of the financial year, including 130 during FY2024/25, as it sought to reduce reliance on conventional energy sources.

Its community investments included a donation of 10 million Ethiopian birr to Mekedonia, an organisation supporting people with mental illness, people with disabilities and older people. The company also contributed 1 million birr towards rehabilitating Awash Market in Dire Dawa after a fire, provided one-year health insurance coverage for 100 families and delivered emergency assistance to communities affected by an earthquake in Afar and a landslide in Gofa.

Despite the expansion, Safaricom Ethiopia faced financial and operational challenges during the reporting period. The report said customer growth targets were not met, partly because of delays in network rollout and security-related restrictions that limited access to some regions.

The company achieved its average revenue per user and service revenue targets but missed its earnings before interest and tax target, largely because of foreign-exchange losses following the depreciation of the Ethiopian birr against the US dollar. It also fell short of its free cash flow target.

Safaricom said network expansion and wider regional coverage remained central to its efforts to increase market share and improve access to voice, data and digital financial services. Its investments in connectivity, digital education, renewable energy and mobile money form part of its longer-term effort to build a sustainable telecommunications business in Ethiopia.

Mariama Bâ

Biggest Selling Title: So Long a Letter
Short Bio: A Senegalese author, Bâ’s novel So Long a Letter is a powerful exploration of women’s rights and the challenges faced by women in post-colonial Africa.

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