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NAIROBI, July 5 (Reuters) - A consortium led by Kenyan
telecoms operator Safaricom has appointed Anwar Soussa
as managing director of its Ethiopian unit, which is scheduled
to start operations next year, Safaricom Chief Executive Peter
Ndegwa said on Monday.
The consortium, which includes South Africa's Vodacom
and Britain's Vodafone, won an operating
licence with a bid of $850 million in May to set up a telecom
firm in Africa's second most populous nation.
Ethiopia, one of the world's last major closed telecoms
markets, is opening up its telecoms sector and hopes it will
create millions of online job opportunities. Apart from the
licence issuance, it plans to sell a 45% stake in state-run
mobile operator Ethio Telecom.
The Safaricom consortium plans to invest up to $8.5 billion
in the country's infrastructure and other areas.
"Anwar will lead the Ethiopian Operating Company on behalf
of the Global Partnership for Ethiopia Consortium," Ndegwa said
in a statement.
Soussa, a Greek national, has been the Managing Director of
Vodacom in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Chairperson of
the mobile unit Vodacash since 2017, Ndegwa said.
Before joining Vodacom, Soussa was the Chief Executive
Officer of Airtel in Uganda and Chad and had also worked for
South Africa's telecom firm MTN.
In his new position, Soussa will report to the board of the
Ethiopia outfit and Safaricom's CEO.
Other partners in the consortium are British development
finance agency CDC Group and Japan's Sumitomo Corporation
.
(Reporting by Duncan Miriri; writing by Omar Mohammed; editing
by Barbara Lewis)
