France’s formerly state-owned telecom company Orange is eyeing opportunities in Ethiopia, the company CEO,  Stéphane Richard told La Tribune Afrique, following the Ethiopian government’s announcement of its intention to liberalise the telecommunications sector.

The Ethiopian government announced on June it plans to open up Ethiopian Airlines, the logistics firm and the telecommunication monopoly to private investment.

The plan is to split Ethio Telecom in two and gradually sell shares in both entities to top telecoms companies in a bid to increase competition, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was quoted as saying.

“I already had the opportunity to say that if there were opportunities to do something in Ethiopia, we would be extremely interested,” Stéphane Richard, CEO of Orange, told La Tribune Afrique.

The head of the French telecom group said Orange would be in a more advantageous position as it had management contract and working relationship with Ethio Telecom for many years.

Other major telecommunications firms like South Africa’s MTN and Vodacom Group, German’s giant, T-Systems and Vietnam’s state-owned Viettel said they were interested in exploring acquiring a stake in Ethio Telecom.

Orange’s experience could be of great help to Ethio Telecom and the firm has already indicated that it is preparing to conquer the markets of the region where it wants to export the Ethiopian telecom brand, La Tribune wrote.  “Already present in nearly twenty countries across Africa, Orange has real expertise that can be put to the service of Ethio Telecom to accelerate its international growth,” it said.

Selling stakes in its lucrative telecoms monopoly could take “one year or two years of intensive study,” Prime Minster Abiy was quoted as saying.

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