According to a statement issued over the weekend, Ethio Telecom CEO Frehiwot Tamru and Djibouti Telecom director general Mohammed Assoweh met in Addis Ababa on to discuss ways Djibouti Telecom could accelerate implementation of the “Horizon Fiber” initiative on its side of the project.
The Horizon Fiber project – which was officially kickstarted in December 2024 under an MoU signed by Ethio Telecom, Djibouti Telecom, and Sudatel Telecom Group – aims to create a multi-terabit, redundant terrestrial fibre optic link interconnecting Ethiopia, Djibouti and Sudan.
Frehiwot and Assoweh also discussed deepening cooperation between Ethio Telecom and Djibouti Telecom in areas such as international gateway partnerships, interconnectivity, mobile money, enterprise solutions, and roaming services, all aimed at strengthening regional digital integration.
Frehiwot said that with international gateway traffic growing exponentially, it was important for both telcos to collaborate on developing dynamic business models including cooperation on submarine cable equity and investment “in order to unlock new opportunities for regional connectivity and accelerate Africa’s digital transformation journey.”
Assoweh said that Djibouti Telecom had the capacity to support Ethiopia’s increasing international gateway demands as it positions itself as a digital gateway between Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Djibouti currently serves as a landing point for eight international subsea cables, with another system – the India Europe Xpress (IEX) – set to be ready for service before the end of this year. Three more subsea systems with landing points in Djibouti are scheduled to go live sometime next year, including Africa-1, Raman and SEA-ME-WE 6.
Assoweh also congratulated Ethio Telecom on the rapid growth of its mobile money platform Telebirr, identifying it as a promising area for cross-border digital financial collaboration in the future.
According to news agency Ecofin, Telebirr has more than 54.8 million users and processes a transaction volume of 2.38 trillion birr ($15.95 billion) per year.
