Safaricom Ethiopia has bagged significant funding from the World Bank’s private investment arm for its greenfield telecommunications project.
The telecom finalised an agreement with the International Finance Corporation and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, to receive $257.4 million in funding.
The IFC is providing a loan of $100 million to Safaricom and investing $157.4 million Ksh22.5 billion in Global Partnership for Ethiopia BV.
This investment will give the IFC a smaller ownership stake in GPE, with Safaricom PLC remaining the major shareholder.
The investment is intended to support Safaricom Ethiopia’s ongoing greenfield telecommunications project to deploy and operate 4G and 5G mobile networks across the country.