Data tops Safaricom Ethiopia earnings as unit eyes profit

Woman from Borana tribe using a mobile phone, in a village in Southern Ethiopia, Africa. [Courtesy/GettyImages]

Safaricom's earnings in Ethiopia were largely driven by mobile data last year, whose revenues accounted for more than 50 per cent of the total revenue that the company got in the country.

This is a complete departure from its Kenyan unit, where mobile money accounts for nearly half of the revenues, having taken over from voice and text messages that were its mainstay in the early days.