By Kebour Ghenna
They come bearing gifts.
The World Bank, in its eternal wisdom, has handed Ethiopia another 70-page report. The goal? A modern, competitive, and open telecommunications sector. Efficient. Transparent. Affordable.
What’s not to like?
Quite a lot, if you’re paying attention.
The Competition Gospel
It always begins the same way. Like preachers from an imported gospel, they preach “level playing fields,” “market liberalization,” “cost-oriented pricing,” and, hallelujah!, the salvation of the poor Ethiopian consumer through competition.
Yes, competition is good. But only when it is real, fair, and serves national priorities, not when it’s code for opening the gate to predators with deeper pockets and foreign agendas.
Take Safaricom. Behind its smiling storefront lies the power of Vodafone, Sumitomo, BII, and the IFC. These aren’t humble start-ups. They are global behemoths, armed with billions, tax privileges, legal armies, and governments that quietly guard their interests abroad.
If this is competition, it’s the kind where one side shows up with boxing gloves… and the other with a drone strike.
Privatize, But to Whom?
The World Bank insists Ethiopia privatize Ethio Telecom. Why? Because that’s what the West did. But look closer.
Is Vodafone in the UK run by Kenyan regulators? Is AT&T in the US told to hand over its towers to Ethiopia?
Of course not.
Privatization is not inherently wrong. But to sell a strategic national asset, like Ethio Telecom, to the highest bidder without strategic filters is to mortgage Ethiopia’s digital sovereignty. The World Bank encourages Ethiopia to let go of majority ownership, allow foreign shareholding, and even mimic Kenya’s model. But Kenya’s story is complicated, and Kenya never had an EthioTel to build in 1941 from scratch. Ethiopians funded EthioTel. Why now should the profits be remitted to Nairobi, Tokyo, or London?
The Infrastructure Trap
The Bank suggests creating TowerCos (independent companies that own and manage telecom towers) and InfraCos (Infrastructure Companies that own and operate non-tower telecom infrastructure) to bring cost efficiency. Sounds tidy. But again, who gets to own them?
Will it be local entrepreneurs? Diaspora investors? Or will the usual suspects, Vodafone, American hedge funds, Chinese vendors, sweep in with “investment” only to extract value over decades?
Infrastructure is national muscle. To unbundle it into little “cos” only to sell it to foreign consortia is to lose leverage in your own digital economy.
Take note, the money isn’t in selling phone calls anymore. That’s just window dressing. The real money is in owning the pipes… the towers, the fiber, the data centers. Own those, and you charge rent to every operator, every user, every startup, every innovation. Forever.
It’s capitalism’s oldest trick: own the chokepoint, and everyone becomes your customer, even your competitors.
And is this kind of rent-seeking absent in advanced economies? Don’t make me laugh!
Remember the net neutrality debates in the U.S.? That was about Comcast and Verizon, their pipes… trying to extract tolls from the likes of Netflix and Google. Pay extra for a “fast lane,” or your content crawls. Monopoly rent, dressed up as innovation.
Yes, I agree pricing must be fair. Yes, infrastructure access should be regulated. But do not give up the very bones of your national network in the name of “sharing.”
On the Matter of Safaricom’s Losses
We are told Safaricom is bleeding. That it pays too much. That EthioTel is abusing its power by pricing below cost.
Why should Ethiopians cry because Vodafone (Safaricom’s owner) lost money? Or because a London-listed firm couldn’t dominate a market as quickly as it expected?
And is this behavior absent in advanced countries? Don’t make me laugh. It’s the standard playbook! In the US, the fight over net neutrality was precisely about this… the Comcasts and Verizons, who own the pipes, wanting to charge the Netflixes and Googles extra for a “fast lane.”
Now, perhaps the pricing complaint is real. But let’s ask: in which developed market would a newcomer expect to take on a national incumbent, pay nothing for 80 years of infrastructure, and expect profits in 3?
Let us not be fooled. This is the oldest trick in the book. The corporate giant enters a new market, prices aggressively, absorbs massive losses to crush competition, and then cries to the regulator that the local incumbent is being mean by not rolling over and dying. They call Ethio Telecom’s pricing “below cost,” a supposed “abuse of dominance.” But from another angle, it’s the only rational defense a national company has against a predator with infinitely deep pockets. It’s called a price war.
Anyway, what is “below cost” for a firm that must serve a public mandate and has different accounting, versus a firm designed solely for shareholder return?
The World Bank’s suggested remedy? Suspend the minimum price (MTR) and consider fining Ethio Telecom millions. It’s a masterpiece of regulatory capture: change the rules and penalize the local player for fighting back effectively.
Digital Payments: A New Colonialism?
The push to “even the playing field” in mobile money and digital financial services is urgent, and fair. But here again, the World Bank’s real goal is clear: force open the doors to M-Pesa.
Ethiopia’s digital financial system must grow. It must be fair, interoperable, and consumer-friendly. But it must also be Ethiopian.
M-Pesa, if given free rein, will become the default wallet, the dominant bank, and the tax collector of tomorrow. Kenya’s experience shows how quickly it swallows the system. The idea that “government Ministries, Departments, and Agencies should not favor state banks” sounds fair, until you realize it means giving away fiscal sovereignty to a Vodafone-owned payments platform.
In France or the U.S., governments do favor national champions. It’s only in places like Ethiopia where such behavior becomes heresy.
What Ethiopia Should Do Instead
1. Focus on Quality of Service:
Customers still suffer from poor connectivity, dropped calls, and unreliable data. Before auctions, Ethiopia needs performance benchmarks,not just license fees.
2. Empower Local Innovators:
Don’t just import tech giants. Build a local developer ecosystem. Prioritize startups. Provide incentives for Ethiopian-owned ISPs, TowerCos, and data centers.
3. Smart, Selective Liberalization:
Competition is good, but strategic competition. License more players, but with investment ceilings, technology transfer mandates, and local ownership quotas.
4. Regulate the Foreign Giants, Don’t Beg Them:
Create a regulatory environment that protects users, promotes competition,but doesn’t surrender authority to foreign lobbyists in Nairobi, Tokyo, or Washington.
Final Word: Beware the Trojan Horse
In the end, this World Bank report is a recipe for a controlled demolition. It uses the language of competition and consumer welfare to prescribe a course of action that systematically dismantles national assets and hands them over to global capital.
Ethiopia has a choice. It can follow this well-trodden path to a “modern” digital economy, where the profits are siphoned offshore to London and Tokyo, and the nation is left with nothing but the monthly bill. Or, it can chart its own, more cunning course: building its own infrastructure, reforming its own institutions for public benefit, and dealing with the corporate titans from a position of sovereign strength, not as a supplicant.
The siren song of foreign capital is alluring. But as they’ve learned in so many other places, once you dance to that tune, you can never, ever stop.
If Ethiopia adopts these recommendations wholesale, privatizes its telecom crown jewel, deregulates infrastructure, and yields digital payments to Vodafone, it won’t be liberalization.
It will be capitulation.
The goal should be digital sovereignty with competition. Not digital colonization dressed as reform.
Editor’s Note : The article appeared first on the social media page of Kebour Ghenna
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Partial “Privatization” could help INJECT NEW CAPITAL, however there MUST BE a RATIO to PROTECT the NATIONS wealth from getting HIJACKED by the international-investment-mobs, like BlackRock.
Ratio: 60/20/20
60% Eth. government, 20% Eth. public, & 20% External / foreign investment
Eth. government holding majority position at all time.
#2)
DATA is the new GOLD, therefore must be protected.
All public DATA must stay withing the country, meaning all foreign investors/institution must have a DATA CENTER within the country, & DATA must stay as a PROPERTY OF the nation & its people.
#3)
“Privatize, But to Whom?”
Here are some horror stories due to ‘privatization’:
Chile; where ‘water is a commodity’ which is privately owned.
– In Chile, water resources are primarily owned by private entities due to the 1981 Water Code, which established water as a tradable commodity. This has led to a situation where water rights can be bought, sold, and leased, often resulting in monopolization by large agricultural and mining companies.
Ownership of Water Resources in Chile
Historical Context
The 1981 Water Code established a framework for water resource management in Chile, allowing private ownership of water rights.
Water was defined as a private commodity, enabling individuals and companies to buy, sell, and lease water rights.
Current Ownership Structure
Private Ownership: Most water resources are owned by private entities, particularly in agriculture and mining sectors.
Public Rights: The Chilean Constitution recognizes water as a national good for public use, but private ownership is permitted.
Water Markets: The system allows for the trading of water rights, leading to monopolization by large agricultural and industrial players.
Impacts of Ownership
Water scarcity has become a significant issue, with some landowners lacking access to water while others hold extensive rights.
The privatization has led to conflicts over water access, especially in drought-affected regions.
Recent Developments
There are ongoing movements advocating for the recognition of water as a human right and for communal management of water resources.
Calls for reform include repealing the 1981 Water Code to address issues of equity and sustainability in water distribution.
wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_resources_management_in_Chile
The Chile ‘water privatization’ law in the constitution did not happen by accident, its from its colonial legacy. After getting its independent in 1818, mist large farmland & mining ownership remained in the Spanish colonialist hands, water privatization was part of land privatization deal, to completely exclude the indigenous Chilians.
US ‘regime change” operation ( as in Afghanistan in 1973, Ethiopia in 1974) General Augusto Pinochet was put in power after leading a military coup that overthrew the democratically elected president, Salvador Allende, on September 11, 1973.
The 1981 water privatization law was put in the constitution as Pinochet was installed as president. ( US run show).
#4)
AI development in the US, resulting in public electricity bill rise by a significant amount up to 40% + increases.
“‘DOTCOM’ AI BUBBLE SIGNS EVERYWHERE: 80% OF Stock Gains, 40% GDP GROWTH”
Link = youtube.com/watch?v=vJCjo2eBP-Q
“Privatization” is the DEAD 1900 ‘neoliberalism ‘ scheme, pushed by WB & IMF to prop up the (dying) ‘Western market economy’ which is setup to loot ‘public resources’ from citizens & pass it on to a handful of international-oligarchy (‘Money Changers”) like ‘Black-rock’, MUST be STOPPED.
The above mentioned ‘RATIO’ must be implemented to help grow the economy within, keep wealth in the country, and make privet citizens at large ( mom & pop ) be participant in the economic growth, else we will end up being SLAVES on our own land.
– If we are not careful and manage our DEBT sensibly, soon they will come after our Water, land & Mineral resources.
Abiy needs to wake up, and learn from nations that overcome these ‘neoliberal’ takeover gimmicks and prospered beyond anyone expectation.
How china outsmarted the global ‘currency traders” like George Soros who managed to bankrupt many nations including England in 1992 forcing it to the devaluation the British pound.
Link = instagram.com/reel/DPc6X9qDU0l/
( you need to enable the ‘audio’)
‘You live and learn’
Be well.
What would those who consider themselves ‘anti commies” (time & again in this Chanel) say; now?
“World MARVELS At Historic China Bridge as America Crumbles ”
Link = youtube.com/watch?v=CnoxISLAqg8
“Back in the USA” ( song by Chuck berry in 1959)
The ‘Baltimore Bridge’ collapsed in Oct 2024, reconstruction is planed but has not begun yet…
Maryland officials release timeline, cost estimate:
The rebuilding plan for the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore includes a projected completion date of October 2028, with an estimated cost of $1.7 billion to $1.9 billion. Pre-construction activities are currently underway, including demolition of existing structures and design assessments for the new bridge.
History:
The history of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge
(Mar 26, 2024)
Bridge construction Construction for the 1.6-mile-long Francis Scott Key Bridge started in 1972 and it opened to traffic on March 23, 1977. The New York Times reported that the bridge cost $141 million to build, which is roughly $743 million in today’s dollars.
Reality bites.
Be well.
Britain has always been strong throughout history, I don’t know how!
Ethiopia cannot privatize because we are too poor. We’ll be bought out.
#1
“Gold’s Run to $5,000, Silver $50 Isn’t a Rally: It’s Proof of a Dying Financial System”
Link = youtube.com/watch?v=cfqJfAcOnp4
#2
“Countries CANCELING USD For China Currency Loans As U.S. Trade Crash To INTENSIFY In 2026 ”
Link =youtube.com/watch?v=E12jy_ChdmM
#3
” Washington’s Panic EXPOSED – Inside the U.S.’s Plan to Stop the Multipolar World”
Link = youtube.com/watch?v=IXhGB12PysQ
#4
” Why the Stock Market Is So HIGH While the Economy Is COLLAPSING – The Great Financial Illusion”
Link = youtube.com/watch?v=S7NHhYlb1Gk
Natural Resources vs printed FIAT $$$ (Fictionalized Economies ) US & UK ( Banker towns)
‘Natural resources’ will out last anything thrown at it… or stand against it.
Be well.
Typo ‘ Fictionalized Economies’ should read ‘Financialized Economies’
Be well.
“October Surprise” Monday 13th Morning ?
” Black Monday CRASH COMING?! YOU HAVE 12 HOURS LEFT?”
Link = youtube.com/watch?v=XwdmZ9vP7w8
#2)
” BULLION DEALER SHOCKED AS $50 SILVER SPARKS PANDEMONIUM AT COIN SHOP! BUYERS FLOOD THE”
Link = youtube.com/watch?v=5xHUCe-DFDk
#3)
“Gold Signals Panic as America’s Debt Spiral Accelerates ”
Link = youtube.com/watch?v=31dd_raRLWY
Careful.!
Be well.
Digital ID
t.me/irishmaninrussiachat/67811
That is what they ( and their WEF/WB/IMF/UN/WHO/…) recruits implementing) think they ( “The Money Changers”) could achieve, but they go through all the motions ( Covid, Nano-particles in Vaccines/FOOD/DRINKS…(remotely accessed & controlled from anywhere via your own cellphone) , D. ID, Face recognition…Trance gender, etc etc.) and at the end that is not is NOT what is going to become of the Human race. We have known of this long ago ( before they were even born)…
Remember this, “FEAR’ is their ONLY TOOL.
They are after our ‘consciousness’, if you are conscious FEAR cannot exist for you, hence they cannot control you.
The action and reaction in the ‘out side’ world around you is just ‘reactions’ both natural from nature and people (all the chatter/opinions based on the DATA they gathered, nothing more ( not true or not false, every one think they are truthful, because the DATA they hold say so to them, but my or your DATA says ‘not so’ ( doesn’t exist here in this silo) ) ) On and on… so pay attention to what is going on within you ( not you head (THOUGHT) ) in your HEART, it is your heart that is ‘scanning’ and connecting you to the rest of nature/Universe, it is your ‘feeling’ from your heart that is the real-connection, not your thoughts ( less to no thought), is the way to remove the ‘CHATTER’ and CREATE inner PEACE.
When one is at peace ( regardless of what is going on around (near or far) everything becomes CLEAR and CLEARER within. All is happening INSIDE, YOU are happening INSIDE, one mm out of your SKIN you are no longer (=the body is dead = you are not IN).
The ‘Out Side’ is only to be observed, used for shelter, access to Food & clothing… the ‘coming & going’ is not LIFE, it is only accessory to LIFE which is INSIDE (for you and me) that same goes for all LIFE-Forms Plant & Animal inside them all. ‘OUT Side’ is just Empty space. Manage what you can control ( for the good of ALL) and ‘observe’ the rest.
In fact “the Rest” only exists in the “liner’ environment we are in and AWARE of, ( like a tomato SEED does not know all the other seeds it exist with, and it is ONE tomato with lost of seeds, so when talking about the tomato there is only ONE, but when we dive in and talk about SEEDS there are countless, if they could ‘see’ no one can convince then they are ONE ( existing in one tomato else their do not (“physically”) exist at all, that does not men thee do not exist without the physical-‘form’ as SEEDS)
In that CONTEXT, THERE IS NO “OTHER’/’THE REST’ therefore, everywhere you look ( sense with your 5 senses) ‘it is you’; there is no one else HERE ( EXISTENCE= CREATION + SOURCE OF CREATION (‘GOD’) ).
So, don’t give in to much to the ‘ILLUSION’, though it also ‘you’.
It is all one, none of its part (if there is such thing) can be separated. = ‘The Singularity’
It sounds and feels ‘gibberish’, but in time the fog slowly clears, and the ‘era’ we are currently entering defines what is next; (not us humans, collectively or individually; though the journey is STRICTLY INDIVIDUAL since the ‘Eye-of-the-needle’ is not made to accommodate mom & pop, son & doughtier, husband & wife… the journey is ones ONLY & alone.)
In the movies, they say, “No one is harmed in the production of this movie”.
Well, it is hard to comprehend in the ‘human mind’, but no one is harmed in this “creations’ experimentation; here is why, ‘forms’ of any kind in this environment do go through a CHANGES and that obviously shows, but the ENERGY within those ‘FORMS’ is NOT susceptible to HARM, ENERGY exist beyond the environment or in other words it is the environment.
Enough for now.
Be well & ‘FEAR FREE’.
Silicon valley AI (Dominance)
“Peter Thiel’s DARK Antichrist Plot REVEALED”
Link = youtube.com/watch?v=wuk4bJSopFk
AI vs ‘anti Christ’…
Everyone thinks they are good ( even when obviously doing bad things) that is why this coming era is confusing and entertaining ( if you are Aware) but if you ‘believe’ all you hear and make it your ‘guiding-light’ chances are high you will end up with ‘fiction’.
‘Being’ is the only way; ‘the human-being’!
The ‘changing of the guard’, (the time we are in), where one era ending and the new era beginning , it will be very confusing moment to moment… but those who stand on a ‘balanced’-foundation’ will remain untouched or moved by the swings-of-time, and the ‘actors’ that be (show up). It doesn’t mater who, not only you are directly-connected-to-the-source, you are it.
Regardless of which PATH taken, the DESTINATION is ONE; (‘THERE IS NO ONE ELSE’)!
Sinner and holy
cold and hot
Are subjective descriptions of the same things to tell how close or far away the ‘form’/ item is from the ‘influence’ it gets those characteristics in comparison to that which is not influenced by any at all.
Simply terms used by ‘teachers’ or ‘influencers’of various denominations of believe-systems.
But there are always some who ‘think’ they are the REAL THING. Illusion.
AI is becoming a reality, but it doesn’t mean it is ‘REAL’, nothing is real, only ‘LIFE’ is real.
You are LIFE.
Be well.