Ethiotel Embarks on Financing Start-ups

Feb 11 , 2023

Start-up businesses are set to receive financial and technical support from Ethiotelecom. The CEO Frehiwot Tamiru mentioned that Ethiopia's procrastination in start-up funding inspired the company to launch the program at the launch ceremony at Hyatt Regency Hotel. Dubbed Ethiotel Innovation the program focuses on business ideas, products, and services in three phases. According to officials, the first phase began last week and will continue for three months, focusing on cloud and mobile financing businesses. They expect to facilitate funding, technology, and training for 100 selected businesses with the opportunity for a scholarship. The second phase is expected to launch next month and will last until July, supporting about 150 tech start-ups engaged in digital content creation, analytics, and social media applications. The third and final program will accommodate novel commercial ideas in their early stages into a business incubation labelled Ethiotel hub. An Eastern African sub-track report which compiled data on start-up financing reveals Ethiopia managed to facilitate a mere six million dollars, 0.5pc of the total fund for the region.