Djibouti set to follow Ethiopia and liberalize telecoms sector

Djibouti looks set to follow in the footsteps of its neighbor Ethiopia and open up its telecoms sector to private investment.

Bloomberg reported that Djibouti will offer a "significant minority" stake in state-owned Djibouti Telecom to a strategic partner.

Djibouti Telecom is currently the country's only telecoms operator with about 751,000 customers at the end of March 2021, according to statistics from market research company Omdia.

The small Horn of Africa nation has a population of almost 1 million people and is one of the last African nations to liberalize its telecoms sector, a plan which the government says will help modernize the economy as well.

Neighboring country Ethiopia is currently in the process of selling a 40% stake in state-owned operator, Ethio Telecom.

Ethiopia also recently awarded a new telecoms license to a consortium led by Kenya's Safaricom – known as the Global Partnership for Ethiopia (GPE).

Djibouti could be an attractive market for international investors due to its location and the fact that 12 undersea cables land – or will land in future – in the country, making it well connected to the rest of the world.

The government reportedly said that investors would have the opportunity to expand into mobile money and data centers.

*Top image by jorono from Pixabay.

— Paula Gilbert, Editor, Connecting Africa