With her ascendancy to the CEO position, a woman has taken the reins of Ethio Telecom in Ethiopia.

According to news reports, Frehiwot Tamiru will announce her priorities and strategy for Ethio Telecom when she starts in her new capacity. Capital Ethiopia reported Tamiru has worked for the company in various positions. Various news reports state she received a master’s degree in business administration at Open University in the United Kingdom and received her first degree in Information Systems at Addis Ababa University. Ethio Telecom is a state-owned entity that maintains a monopoly over the telecommunications industry in Ethiopia. Reportedly, the company has over 20,000 employees and is Africa’s largest mobile operator. This is Africa reported Ethiopia is one of the few countries that still has a state-owned monopoly in its telecommunications industry. The CIA Factbook describes the Ethiopian economy as “one-party state-owned with a planned economy.”

The country appears to be headed toward change. Ethiopia has been in the news recently with talks of privatization of certain parts of its economy to generate investment and encouraging signs of peace with Eritrea; the two countries have had tense relations since a war erupted between the two countries in the 1990s. Bloomberg reported the International Monetary Fund (IMF) sees Ethiopia beating countries such as Ghana, Senegal, Ivory Coast and Tanzania in terms of its economic growth.