Giant telecom operators from the UK, South Africa, Kenya and Japan are bidding to enter Ethiopia’s untapped telecom market.

The country’s finance ministry announced that it received two bids – from South Africa’s MTN group and a consortium that includes Kenya’s Safaricom – as it works to open the telecom market to international operators.

The consortium also includes Vodafone and CDC companies from the UK, South Africa’s Vodacom and Japanese firm Sumitomo.

The ministry also posted the announcement on Twitter,

Financial and technical assessments of the bids will be done by a national evaluation committee.

Opening up the telecom market was one of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s pledges of economic reform when he came to power three years ago.