Kenya moves closer to splitting Safaricom
August 22nd 2025
Kenya’s biggest company by market capitalisation, Safaricom, might be heading for its biggest shake-up yet. The government is weighing a plan to split the telecoms giant into three separate businesses — its core telco arm, a tower operator, and the wildly successful mobile money service, M-Pesa. The Treasury Secretary told Bloomberg an assessment showed “huge benefit” in carving up the company.
If the move goes ahead, Safaricom’s telecoms unit would stick to voice and data, the tower business would manage network infrastructure, and M-Pesa would stand alone as a financial services company under the watchful eye of the Central Bank of Kenya. For years, lawmakers have argued that M-Pesa’s sheer dominance in digital payments, handling more than 90% of the market, is simply too much power bundled into one company.
Splitting Safaricom isn’t a totally new idea. Regulators have long worried about the company’s size, while banks have kept a close eye on M-Pesa as it eats into financial services. In October 2024, Kenyan lawmakers stepped up their push to make Safaricom, the country’s biggest telecom company, break away from M-PESA, its wildly successful mobile money service.
Globally, too, big firms have done similar splits to sharpen focus. Airtel separated its mobile money unit in 2021, while MTN Uganda recently got the approval to ring-fence its fintech arm.
For Safaricom, the timing could be crucial. Its core telco services remain dominant, but competition in mobile money is heating up, especially from Airtel Money. Still, M-Pesa is so deeply entrenched in Kenya’s economy that it accounts for over half the country’s GDP in transactions each year. Regulators say moving it under CBK oversight would bring stronger financial stability.
A standalone M-Pesa would also mean it no longer has to rely on partnerships with KCB Bank and NCBA for loan products like Fuliza and KCB M-Pesa. That independence could change the dynamics of Kenya’s banking and payments landscape, and not everyone will be happy.
Safaricom hasn’t said much yet, but if Kenya’s government pushes this through, it could reshape the country’s telecom and fintech industries all at once. Whether it unlocks shareholder value or just shakes up the market, this is one story that’s far from over.
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