President William Ruto on Thursday morning flew to the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa where he was received by Abiy Ahmed, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia.

The visit came ahead of Safaricom’s launch of its services into the Ethiopian market, President Ruto and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed graced the launch of the teleco giant’s commercial services into the most populous country in East and Central Africa.

The company, part of the Vodafone group, has been under mounting pressure over its failure to meet previous launch deadline in April 2022. The company had announced to launch the services in in October, rolling out its services to 25 cities already connected to the network.

Since the granting of the licence in July 2021, Safaricom has invested in its network and infrastructure, including its own mobile radio towers, national transmission network, and wholesale agreements for international connectivity.

In addition, the two heads of state, had bilateral talks in Addis Ababa where they agreed that Kenya will now import wheat from its northern neighbor in a bid to lower the cost of food in the country. This is according to a statement released by statehouse.

“In its bid to stabilise food prices, the discussion further agreed that Kenya will import wheat from Ethiopia whose yields have increased substantially,” the statement read in part.

President Ruto further intimated that Kenya will work with Ethiopia to increase the cross-border trade to exploit the potential between the two neighbors.

“This is an emphatic signal that the African Unity of our time has come of age, a continent united by opportunity, and a Pan-Africanism driven by trade,” he stated.

The meeting was just one of the planned visits by President Ruto to his East African counterparts with him heading next to Uganda before ending the blitz in Tanzania where he is expected to hold talks with President Samia Suluhu