Safaricom Ethiopia is eyeing an entry into the remittance business landscape as competition evolves in Ethiopia’s duopolistic telecommunications sector. The company, which has managed to build over 3500 mobile sites in nearly three years, is looking to carve out a market in an industry flung open after Ethiopia liberalized its forex regime policy two months back.Wim Vanhelleputte, CEO of Safaricom Ethiopia, identifies prospects in gaining some share of the abundant remittance flows coming into Ethiopia as the gap between parallel and official exchange rates narrow. He highlighted the potential of leveraging the company’s M-PESA platform, which is already providing similar services in Kenya and South Africa.“We are already connected to nearly every [money transfer operator] in the world,” Wim told Shega.
