The CEO of Ethio Telecom gave a keynote address at the 2018 Innovation Africa Digital Summit in Addis Ababa. He discussed Ethio Telecom's transformation, commitment to rural connectivity, and persistence in moving forward with revolution. Key points included massive network expansion through vendor financing, designing a new organization structure and processes, building capable staff, and laying off excess staff who formed their own successful business. The CEO expressed commitment to providing universal access and advancing technologies while prioritizing high quality customer service. Overall goals are accommodating growth, introducing new services, and becoming more customer-focused to support Ethiopia's economy.

1. Keynote Address
Creative Brief on ethiotelecom
by
Chief Executive Officer
Andualem Admassie Abate (PhD)
On the
2018 Innovation Africa Digital Summit,
Addis Ababa

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Creative Brief . . . Ethio Telecom
A view of the future, an address to Innovative Africa Digital Summit
Distinguished Guests, Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen!
Let me say I am honored to stand in front of you and present this creative brief about
ethiotelecom; as a keynote address and trust this brief will give you a view of the
future of ethiotelecom.
We believe that the future of telecom in Ethiopia must simultaneously provide
affordable, universal service and universal access to all citizens and provide advanced
services to those businesses, institutions, and individuals who need them. We strive to
support those services with world-class customer service. We are much more focused
on our customer’s needs, and ask ourselves with each decision we make, “How does
this benefit or add value for our customers.”
We know we must deliver high quality service at affordable prices. We know we must
help large and small businesses grow by providing access to new technologies that will
make their businesses run more efficiently and effectively. We know we must consult
our customers in areas such as electronic commerce – and this means that we listen to
them to better understand their needs. We know we must demonstrate how telecom
can be used to better manage their business, to reach new markets, and to serve their
own customers better.
We also recognize we must help citizens connect to the resources provided by all the
government institutions, and to others around the world. Electronic government will
make it easier for Ethiopian citizens to access to the services and resources that will
meet their needs and enrich their lives. And we are grappling to do that.
In connecting Ethiopia and Ethiopians to the future, we are investing in state-of-the-
art technology, expanding network availability and coverage, making our network
more reliable, and increasing our capacity to serve our customers: all citizens of
Ethiopia. We are making these investments responsibly so we can provide good quality
services at affordable rates – for those who live in cities as well as those who live in
remote rural areas and communities.

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The history of telecom in Ethiopia is one of progress and regression filled with
successes and letdowns. The history of ethiotelecom and its predecessor the Ethiopian
Telecommunications Corporation is also a reflection of Ethiopia’s history and we’re
proud of our heritage, and yet we know we can do better. Moving forward required
and perhaps will again require fundamental, radical, and dramatic changes to achieve
national goals set forth by the government and hence the creation of the new
company and continuous transformation visit of same.
Let me explain some of those changes that happened and are already underway.
I. Transformation
Since 2004 we started to devise ways and means to accomplish three main issues; we
came up with establishment of a transformation program office to accomplish.
1. Massive network expansion through a vendor financing scheme
2. Design of NGOSS (eTOM, TNA, SID, TMA) cased organization and process;
3. Build capable staff that can implement and run the newly built network tuned
with the NGOSS cased organization and process.
In that respect to accomplish our first objective: in 2006 we invited all major telecom
technology suppliers and integrators and explained, on a face to face meeting, and
clearly told them that we want to go to a massive expansion on a vendor financing
scheme.
When the proposal was opened, though almost all major vendors have submitted the
response to the EOI, to our dismay with the exception of ZTE all 12 declined to work
with us unless a sovereign guarantee is arranged: another hiccup.
So we said ok and we then awarded ZTE a 1.5 billion USD project and side by side we
developed the circle approach where we segregated the Ericsson, Nokia and Huawei
2G capacity we had since 1996 into clusters and we let ZTE implement the expansion
in the remaining circles. We were successful and in three years our capacity boomed
to over 20 million in all services.
When the second expansion began in 2011 we followed same approach and as our
policy has already sanctioned a multi-vendor multi-award and as many of the vendors
who let us down in 2006 have already regretted – we are blessed at least to have

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Ericsson and Huawei back to grip their footprint; and am sure they had a very happy
engagement.
On the second and third list of objectives I mentioned earlier; we can say we were very
successful in designing the NGOSS framework cased business processes and also
building capable staff; one thing that we lacked was none of us had experience of
managing a company with world-class vision, hence we were allowed to go to find
someone who can walk-us-the-walk; hence the management contract with France
Telecom. After two years of management contract with FT the Ethiopian contingent
took over all “C” level positions and here we are.
During the transformation and establishment of ethio telecom various critical
decisions were also taken; but of all the most painful but finally that turned out well is
the layoff of excess staff: ethio lay off around 2700 staff. We did not send everyone
home but we encouraged them to establish a business company. We even gave them
on loan the needed capital to form a company. I guess we were able to see a company
unique in its kind where all 2700 employees are shareholders as well employees of the
company and in just one year time it reached to a level that can cover all its CAPEX and
OPEX.
As we speak this company is the major partner of ethio in SIM and Voucher
distribution, bill collection, fixed line provisioning and secondary cabling in regards to
telecom service and also has partnered in mobile handset assembly as well solar
powered flashlights and mobile chargers and many other services with various
companies. With ethio telecom only their monthly revenue has surpassed 1.5 billion
Birr (50m+ USD).
II. Our Commitment
We remain fully committed to our rural connectivity initiative – providing access to
every Ethiopian with no more than a five-kilometer walk. We began this program in
1994 and we can report that we are 97% towards our goal of establishing coverage in
16k kebeles; this program reaches 96% of Ethiopia’s population today. The value of
communications in remote areas is vital to the economic and social progress in these
communities and Ethiopia overall, and cannot be underestimated.

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III. Persistence
As explained earlier, we were transformed in 2010 and we are again thinking of
moving forward with the revolution which may again involve restructuring of the
telecom industry in Ethiopia.
As I said earlier, our goals are to accommodate growth, introduce new services,
become more customer-focused, and provide the foundation for changes in financial,
health care, transportation, retail, education, and other critical sectors of the
economy. This continuous transformation will provide customers with more choices,
better service, and better value.
It is not enough to simply install technology such as a Next Generation Network; 3G,
4GLte etc; in fact, technology is not our highest priority. Our highest priority is
providing a high quality of service to our customers and to the nation. We are thinking
about the applications and services that can be delivered as a result of investments in
technology. We are taking actions to strengthen and sustain a Next Generation
Enterprise and a Next Generation Workforce. We are challenging ourselves to think in
terms of what each citizen needs to realize the benefits that telecommunications and
information technologies can provide. We are taking actions that will set us on a
course that delivers those promises to each of our citizens.
How will this happen? For the past few years, we have been engaged in transforming
our age old company and we are still working on continuing such spirit. Our vision goes
beyond technology deployment, beyond designing business processes, and beyond the
changes many observers have seen. We are transforming our company and the way
we do business; transforming the way our people are trained and the way they work.
Transformation will bring about radical, dramatic, and fundamental changes in the way
we do business in Ethiopia.
The work we have done to get to this point is only the beginning. Ahead of us we have
many challenges and opportunities. The synergies of a New Generation Network, a
New Generation Enterprise, and a New Generation Workforce will be a tremendous
asset that will yield great benefits to Ethiopia. It’s a future we can all embrace.