Fuel Shock Reaches Ethio telecom’s Bottom Line

Ethio telecom has fallen short of its revenue target for the fiscal year, posting 215 billion Br against 20 billion Br from the initial plan.Its executives have cut that plan to match the outcome, the clearest sign yet that the Middle East war and the fuel disruption it set off have reached the country's largest telco company.

The state-owned operator, led by its chief executive officer, Frehiwot Tamru, still called the result a record, a 33.2pc rise on the year."Due to the Middle East impact and fuel disruption, the revenue has been impacted," Frehiwot told Fortune.

The Middle East war has driven up the price of imported fuel and disrupted supply, a shock serious enough that the IMF brought forward part of Ethiopia's programme financing to help cushion it. For

a company running thousands of base stations on diesel where the grid is weak or unreliable, that shock lands directly on operations, converting a distant conflict into dropped calls, idle towers and, ultimately, a revised revenue line.About 44pc of the operator's mobile lines depend on fuel-powered generators. When supply tightened and prices climbed in the wake of the conflict, coverage and capacity, and the revenue that rides on them, took the hit, forcing the company to redraw its plan in the ninth month of the crisis.

However, profitability held up better than the top line. Earnings before depreciation and amortisation reached 52.4pc of revenue, up from 47.7pc, a margin the company attributed to its "Next Horizon Digital & Beyond" strategy of leaning harder into digital services, tighter cost control and higher-value data traffic. The network build-out, though, slipped badly.

Ethio telecom had planned 1,228 new mobile sites by August 2025, among them 322 in rural areas, but delivered 603, including 195 rural sites.

The same fuel and logistics problems that dented revenue also slowed the civil works, equipment delivery and power connections that a new tower needs.

Tax contributions had been set at 70.9 billion Br and came in higher, at 73.5 billion Br, leaving the company one of the treasury's larger single payers at a moment when the government is struggling to lift domestic revenue.

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