Everywhere but Nowhere: How effective is Ethio Telecom's Business Model?
It seems Ethio Telecom wants to change its image from merely a telecom provider to that of a national digital conglomerate that operates multiple business units. But how effective is that strategy?
In recent years, Ethiopia’s telecom giant, Ethio Telecom, has been undergoing rapid expansion. Apart from expanding the reach of its telecommunication services, the 100+ year-old company is now venturing into sectors that are sometimes completely unrelated to its core domain. Soon enough, it seems Ethio Telecom wants to change its image from merely a telecom provider to that of a national digital conglomerate that operates multiple business units. But how effective is that strategy?
The rapid expansion
After Ethiopia decided to liberalize its telecom sector, Ethio Telecom responded by rapidly expanding its services to stay ahead of the competition. This began with the launch of Telebirr in 2021, a digital payment SuperApp that has since become one of Ethiopia’s most widely used payment gateways. In mid-2024, the company partnered with Eagle Lion Technologies to launch TeleTV, a streaming platform dubbed “Ethiopia’s first online cinema.” That same year, Ethio Telecom acquired a broker’s license, enabling it to sell 10% of its shares to the public through its own platform.
In May 2025, the company launched Zemen Gebeya, an indigenous e-commerce platform, and also inaugurated a chain of fast-charging EV stations across Addis Ababa. Through Telebirr, it now offers microfinance services and recently signed an agreement with the Oromia Agriculture Bureau to develop an integrated, big-data-powered platform tailored to the agricultural sector.
Taken together, these efforts make it clear that Ethio Telecom is building an impressively broad and ambitious portfolio.
The upside of it all…
State-owned enterprises (SOEs) are often seen as dormant and rarely achieve significant growth. Ethio Telecom’s recent expansion, however, brings a renewed sense of ambition and sets a new standard for what SOEs can accomplish. As one of Ethiopia’s oldest companies, it’s good to see that Ethio Telecom is trying to build a stature that matches the antiquity of its name. But the devil lies in the details. In this case, we must ask “to what end is this expansion?” and “how effective is it?”
Expanding for the sake of it
Ethio Telecom isn’t the only state-owned enterprise expanding beyond its core services. Ethiopian Airlines, for example, runs an aviation academy and a five-star hotel in addition to its airline operations. But in that case, the connection between the business units is clear: the academy trains personnel for the airline, which flies passengers to its hub, where they stay at the hotel. It’s a vertically integrated ecosystem that makes strategic sense.
Now contrast that with Ethio Telecom. A customer might visit Zemen Gebeya, pay via Telebirr, then perhaps charge their EV at an Ethio Telecom station, or stream content on TeleTV. The journey feels disjointed.
In short, Ethio Telecom’s expansion lacks a unifying narrative. With its significant financial and infrastructural power, the company appears to be venturing into every industry simply because it can, not necessarily because it should.
The risk of a monopoly
As a state-owned corporation, Ethio Telecom enjoys certain privileges, and nowhere is this more evident than with Telebirr. Shortly after its launch, all fuel transactions were mandated to be paid through Telebirr, and several government services began accepting payments only via the app. This fast-tracked its adoption, making it the most widely used digital payment platform in Ethiopia.
To be fair, Telebirr isn’t a bad app. It has its merits and, under fair market conditions, might still have performed well. But we’ll never really know, because its growth wasn’t entirely organic. Instead, it was boosted by exclusive arrangements that are out of reach for private players. This gives Ethio Telecom the power to outpace competitors, without having to actually compete.
Based on what we’ve seen so far, Ethio Telecom shows no signs of slowing down. As time goes on, we can likely expect even more bold and unexpected moves from the company. Whether these will serve the public good or simply expand its empire remains to be seen.