One should look at Ethiopia with a very long lens (time frame).
The Birr needs to find its level and it seems, unless there is some very good news for Ethiopia, it will depreciate further.
Safaricom is very small in Ethiopia. It is like the Telkom (not even Airtel) of Ethiopia BUT it does not have the legacy issues of Ethiotel. Lessons from Kenya can be applied to Ethiopia but these need to be localized.
Focus of Saf ET is to GROW the numbers to benefit from network effects. MPesa is where I see Ethiopians will slowly favor Saf over Ethiotel. Saf knows how to monetize MPesa in the private sector.
Where Saf will have a long hard climbs, unlike Kenya, is linking Govt of Ethiopia services as Ethiotel will likely be favored just as Saf is favored in KE over Airtel for GoK services.
This is not a post to say BUY SAF or SELL SAF but about Saf ET's challenges and opportunities.
Greedy when others are fearful. Very fearful when others are greedy - to paraphrase Warren Buffett