Ethio Telecom enrolls 32M for Fayda as telecoms take bigger DPI role

Ethio Telecom says it has enrolled 32 million Ethiopians for the country’s Fayda digital ID, underscoring the increasingly important role telecommunications providers are playing in delivering national digital public infrastructure (DPI).

The figures are contained in the telco’s recently unveiled 2025/2026 annual business performance report. The enrollments represent around 69 percent of all registered Fayda digital IDs and is a major milestone in the company’s “Next horizon digital and beyond 2028 strategy.” Ethiopia has issued 47.8 million digital IDs as of July 27.

Ethio Telecom entered into an official partnership with Ethiopia’s National ID Program (NIDP) in 2024, and set a one-million-a-month enrollment target to support Ethiopia’s ambitious push towards universal legal identity.

The telco said its nationwide infrastructure and digital capabilities have made it the country’s primary digital transformation enabler, helping enroll millions of Ethiopians who need the Fayda digital ID for a growing number of public and private sector use cases.

Per the business performance report, Ethio Telecom’s teams cover all of the country’s regional states and two city administrations, with a focus on reaching difficult-to-access areas and vulnerable segments of the population. It has deployed more than 3,340 active registration kits across service centers, franchise outlets, and through mobile registration teams, reaching about 98 percent of the country’s administrative zones.

The company stated that during the 2025/26 budget year alone, it registered 20.19 million Ethiopians and generated 17.17 million Foundational Identification Numbers (FINs).

Ethio Telecom also manages card production and distribution through 19 regional printing centers and 27 printers. It has printed 9.35 million cards to date, with 7.45 million produced in the last budget year, maintaining a 99 percent fulfilment rate. Secure ID card distribution is managed through more than 500 pickup locations using OTP-based verification.

The report also noted that apart from digital ID enrollment, Ethio Telecom is contributing to Ethiopia’s digital public infrastructure and overall digital transformation growth in several other ways.

Beyond digital identity, the state-owned telco says it is supporting Ethiopia’s wider DPI agenda through 4G and 5G expansion, the Telebirr digital payments platform, digital government initiatives and national cybersecurity infrastructure. Telebirr alone processed 2.61 billion transactions during the year, while the company supported 126 digital transformation projects across the public and private sectors.

These strides notwithstanding, Ethio telecom is looking to leverage more partnerships in order to strength support for Ethiopia’s digital transformation. This month, it had talks with Huawei on ways of driving up digital innovation and expanding the country’s digital infrastructure, especially for the benefit of SMEs.

Ethio Telecom is proving that telecoms can play a critical role in DPI development through partnerships. Safaricom, the only other telco in the country, also recently signed up to offer support for Fayda enrollment.

Article Topics

biometric enrollment  |  digital ID  |  digital public infrastructure  |  Ethio Telecom  |  Ethiopia  |  Ethiopia National ID Program (NIDP)  |  Fayda