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African telecommunications giant, MTN has reportedly walked away from bidding for Ethiopia’s mobile license. MTN had lost to Safaricom in May for the license to operate in the Ethiopian telecommunications sector. The Safaricom-led consortium, known as the Global Partnership for Ethiopia, won with a winning bid of $850 million over MTN’s $600 million.
Ethiopia has announced that it would launch the process to award a second new mobile license, which also includes a permit to offer financial services in August. This has been previously seen as a key stumbling block in the liberalization of Ethiopia’s telecoms market.
According to Bloomberg, MTN has not yet made a final decision on whether to bid again. MTN may be put off by the civil war in the northern Tigray region and tensions around a new giant dam on the Nile due to the increased threat of conflict with downstream nations Egypt and Sudan.
In a statement issued by the regulator, it reportedly said: ”The Ethiopian Communications authority wishes to inform all interested telecoms operators to consider this attractive multinational investment opportunity and to remain tuned for additional information by the authority on the launch date of the bid process.”