APA-Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) Ethio Telecom says it has earned $352 million before interest tax, depreciation and amortisation from its operation during the first half of the current 2023/24 fiscal year.
In a press briefing on Tuesday, CEO of the state-owned telecoms company Frehiwot Tamru said the Ethio Telecom posted a 14 percent rise in half-year profit and its mobile phone-based financial service-Telebirr helped the profit to rise.
Subscribers to Telebirr, launched in May 2021, grew to 41 million of its 74.6 million total subscribers, Frehiwot said, while handling transactions worth 910.7 billion birr (over $16.7 billion).
“During the half-year, our company generated a total of 42.86 Billion Birr (over $787 million) in revenue and achieved 98 percent of its target through expanding its revenue sources, providing affordable new and revamped products and services,” the telcom says.
This service generated the highest revenues from all service types and contributed a 41.8% share of the telco’s six-month earnings.
The rest came from data & internet (25.7%), international business (9.3%), value-added services (8.7%), devices sales (5%), Telebirr (2.5%), infrastructure share (1.1%), and others (5.9%).
The telco also secured 84.7 Million USD in foreign exchange from international interconnect, roaming, infrastructure share and remittance, attaining 109 percent of its target.
The six-month performance report put Ethio Telecom’s net profit at 11 billion Birr and its profitability rate at 26 percent.
“The outstanding performance was recorded amid challenges and the competitive market,” Ethio Telecom said.
These challenges include service outages due to security problems, power interruption, lack of foreign currency, cable vandalism, delays in land acquisition, and telecom fraud.
MG/abj/APA