Ethio Telecom Begins Trading On Ethiopian Securities Exchange

Ethio Telecom shareholders can now trade their shares on the Ethiopian Securities Exchange (ESX), the company has announced, completing the final stage of a partial privatisation that began with a public share sale in late 2024.

Trading opened on 26 May under the ticker TELE. The move makes Ethio Telecom the first state-owned enterprise and the first non-financial company to list on the exchange, which launched in January 2025 and until now counted three banks: Wegagen, Gadaa and Awash.

The listing follows the sale of a 10 per cent stake to the public. The company said 47,377 citizens bought 10.7 million shares during the offer. Of those, 45,366, about 95.8 per cent, have completed ownership verification and the digitisation, or dematerialisation, of their holdings, which clears them to trade. Those verified shareholders hold 10.1 million shares valued at 3.04 billion birr.

The shares were sold at 300 birr each through telebirr, the company’s mobile money platform, in an offer that ran from October 2024 to February 2025 and was open only to Ethiopian citizens. The use of telebirr as the subscription channel made the sale one of the more digitally native IPOs on the continent.

The offer fell well short of its goal. Ethio Telecom had aimed to raise around 30 billion birr but took in roughly a tenth of that.

To trade, shareholders must first open an account with a brokerage or investment bank licensed by the Ethiopian Capital Market Authority. The company said those who have completed dematerialisation will have their ownership rights recognised from the start of the current budget year.

Not every buyer is cleared. Ethio Telecom said 1,646 shareholders are still pending because they have not supplied valid National ID (Fayda) details, and it has asked them to do so. A further 248 foreign nationals, holding 105,000 shares, were found ineligible under the citizens-only rule and will be refunded.

The company said it will publish its full-year performance summary and audited accounts, and will convene its first annual general meeting in the coming budget year, where the dividend and other strategic decisions will be set.

The listing is a centrepiece of the government’s Homegrown Economic Reform, which created the capital market and is using state enterprises to seed it. Officials have said they want dozens of companies trading on the ESX within a decade. For Ethio Telecom — an operator with roots stretching back more than 130 years that held a monopoly until the sector opened to competition in 2022 — public ownership also brings the disclosure and scrutiny that come with a stock-market listing.

“The sale of Ethio telecom’s ownership stake is a historic measure taken to strengthen the national capital market system and empower citizens as owners of wealth. The successful conclusion of this journey … represents a historic milestone that opens the door for citizens to actively participate in the digital economy,” the statement said.