People & Organisation

• As at 31 December 2023, we had 891 staff, of which 89% are in market talent.
• The company will continue to evolve into a fully-fledged Ethiopian-run organisation over the next 12–18 months.

Network Infrastructure

• We are on track to meet our coverage obligations, 55% by June 2025.
• We have taken a self-build/sharing model with Ethiotel and, partnering with Ethiopia Electric Power (EEP) (high voltage long-distance transmission) and Ethiopia Electric Utility (EEU) (last mile distribution and grid connection).
• Ethiopia produces cheapest electricity in Africa, so we have cost efficiencies to maximise.
• As of 31 December 2023, we had 2,242 base stations
  (1,252 own built & 990 collocated) covering 33 cities including large and medium towns. This represents 33% population coverage.
• Our focus now is to densify connectivity to continue enhancing quality of connectivity as we create a contiguous network.
• Our FY24 CAPEX guidance of KShs 45 – 48Bn remains unchanged. We are on track to achieve our targeted
  3,000 sites by end of FY24.
• We have a 24/7 call center providing services in six languages, with plans to build a second call centre serving more languages.

Sales & Distribution

• Our S&D model has evolved since we launched operations guided by coverage, sites capacity, distribution infrastructure and performance targets.
• This is now focused on scaling sites, critical mass reach and cost efficiencies. Since commercial launch, we have taken learnings on the go to establish effective, efficient and engaged distributor network.
• We are also focusing on establishing one customer for both GSM & M-PESA services to drive acquisitions and, one trade without differentiation of retailers for GSM products and M-PESA agents & merchants.
• Territory management is also key in creating clear accountability and visibility to drive distribution cost efficiencies focusing on building a merchant network, accepting payments and selling airtime via M-PESA float.

Our winning strategy as the Challenger

• We are positioning our brand as the international brand for the Youthful population of Ethiopia over indexing on youth volume and value market share to:
  • Win with Best-in-class Digital experience for
    (a) Know (b) Buy (c) Service Proposed digital first order to interact with our customers; App then Telegram then USSD.
  • Win with supporting community via Technology- Leverage on technology as an enabler of Youth Economic progress.
  • Win the battle on Quality across all touchpoints – Data network experience, Products, Customer Service.

M-PESA

• The opportunity.
  • Banking penetration in urban areas is high, but 99% of small value transactions are in cash.
  • Only 11% of the population has had access to loans from financial institutions.
  • The social construct is less geared to town-to-village money transfer.
  • USD 6.9Bn Annual Diaspora Remittances.
• Progress since acquiring the license.
  • Customer acquisition; 3.1Mn M-PESA Registered Customers and 95% conversion of daily GSM gross adds
  • Agent & Merchant Ecosystem; 43K Merchants and 70+ Supermarket outlets and 26k Agents
  • Partnerships; 12 Banks, 3 e-commerce and for International Money Transfer: 12 partners + 3 corridors (100+ corridors)
  • Technology Platform; 400 TPS Platform, over 99% service availability, converged App and USSD channels and open API platform
  • Agile Delivery; 6 Active Squads – Consumer, Credit, Merchants, Integrations, onboarding & support, Technology operations
  • We have leveraged on our experience to build a complete 3-Sided ecosystem from Day 1; a Business, Consumer and Developer community to drive a robust fintech platform.

We also had the privilege of hosting various government representations to make key note speeches on Ethiopia’s macro-economic conditions and the government’s initiatives impacting our operating environment.

These were Eng. Balcha Reba the Director General, Ethiopian Communications Authority, Mamo Mihretu the Governor, National Bank of Ethiopia, Dr Brook T. the Director General, Ethiopian Capital Market Authority, Dr Habtamu Simachew, Senior Legal Advisor, Ethiopian Investment Commission (EIC) and Yodit Kassa, Chief Business Development Officer, Ethiopian Securities Exchange (ESX).