Ethiopia's new Minister of Innovation and Technology is the person who has run the country's biggest telecom company for most of the past decade. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed appointed Ethio Telecom CEO Frehiwot Tamru to the post, and parliament approved her as part of a wider cabinet reshuffle last week, Connecting Africa reports.
Her record at Ethio Telecom
Frehiwot became CEO in 2018 and led the state-owned operator through its biggest change yet: the end of its monopoly. A Safaricom-led consortium won Ethiopia's second licence in 2021 and launched commercially in 2022. Ethio Telecom has held its ground, with almost 87 million subscribers by mid-2026 against about 14.8 million for Safaricom Ethiopia.
Under her, the company pushed beyond voice and data into mobile money, cloud services and even electric-vehicle charging in Addis Ababa. It launched commercial 5G in 2023, although Omdia data cited by Connecting Africa shows only about 3% of customers had moved to 5G by mid-2026. For the year to June 2026, the company reported revenue up 33% and EBIT up 47.5%.
Why it matters
Moving a telecom operator's chief straight into the ministry that shapes digital policy brings real experience into government. Few people know Ethiopia's networks, spectrum and digital payments market better. It also raises fair questions:
- Competition. The new minister ran the incumbent that Safaricom Ethiopia competes against. How she handles issues that affect both operators will be watched closely.
- Ethio Telecom's leadership. The company has not yet named a successor, leaving its biggest operator without a confirmed chief during a period of 5G rollout and expansion.
- Policy direction. Her record suggests a focus on infrastructure, digital payments and getting services to scale, which could shape the ministry's priorities for startups and digital government.
For Ethiopia's tech ecosystem, the appointment puts someone with operating experience at the policy table. The test will be whether she uses it to open the market further, not just to strengthen the operator she came from.
