Safaricom Ethiopia takes $134m external debt on shallow local lending capacity

Regulatory constraints in Ethiopia pushed Safaricom’s subsidiary in that market to take a $134.0 Million (Sh17.3 billion) worth of hard currency debt from external sources in the year ended March 2026, even as the telco keeps a keen eye on the risk of rising foreign exchange pressures triggered by the war on Iran.

Safaricom says that whereas it would have loved to tap into Ethiopia Birr denominated debt to allow it to match its borrowings with sales, which are in local currency, two key hurdles that Ethiopian banks are facing made that route impossible and therefore created need for US dollar denominated funding.