Safaricom Ethiopia seeks to recruit 1,000 staff by June next year
Safaricom Ethiopia has rolled out countrywide staff recruitment as the company edges closer to commercial launch.
The telco plans to invest $8.5 billion in a span of over 10 years while contributing to digital growth in Ethiopia, a country of over 110 million people.
In August, authorities confirmed that Safaricom Ethiopia licence will be revised to include offering mobile financial services over and above the telecom service permit won in May by a consortium led by Safaricom.
At a media conference today held at Safaricom Ethiopia’s new offices, Mr Peter Ndegwa, Chief Executive Officer of Safaricom PLC, leading a senior delegation from the Global Partnership for Ethiopia (GPE) for a visit to Ethiopia this week, conveyed the shareholders’ commitment the investment.
“The Global Partnership for Ethiopia is proud to be investing in Ethiopia and thanks the Government of Ethiopia and other key partners for their support in the initial preparations for commercial launch.
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“Such partnerships are the building blocks of digital transformation, and I would like to thank all our partners for their support as we work towards enabling our commercial launch and contribution to digital Ethiopia as a purpose-led technology company,” said Mr Ndegwa.
While giving an update on readiness for commercial launch, Safaricom Ethiopia Managing Director Anwar Soussa said the telco has started recruiting Ethiopian nationals for technology, commercial and corporate roles ranging from executive to graduate level posts.
“Our ongoing recruitment process is intentionally guided by the promise of a digital future for the people of Ethiopia. By June next year, we aim to build a team of 1000 employees driven by innovation and digital solutions. We will also offer all employees comprehensive digital training packages through our #1moreskill training programme–a gateway to new skills in the digital economy,” Mr Soussa said.
Further, Safaricom Ethiopia will recruit 450 graduates over the next three years into a global development scheme dubbed “Discover Graduate Management Programme”.
The graduates will undergo accelerated learning rotations across various functions in the business as well as leadership coaching and mentorship programmes.
“We believe young people are the key to delivering the digital Ethiopia ambitions and with our global Discover Graduate Management Programme, we will create a pool of talent of digital innovators who will grow with the business to achieve this,” added Mr Soussa.
