Vodacom and Safaricom have completed the acquisition of the M-Pesa brand, product development and support services from Vodafone through a newly-created joint venture. According to a statement released to the media, the transaction – first announced in 2019, will accelerate M-Pesa’s growth in Africa “by giving both Vodacom and Safaricom full control of the M-Pesa...
When Peter Ndegwa takes office as the new Safaricom chief executive officer, his every move will be closely scrutinised. His words and deeds, however small or off-the-cuff, will instantly spread and be amplified. Occasionally, his sentiments will be misinterpreted. For Mr Ndegwa, taking over the most profitable company in East and Central Africa will be...
Safaricom announced earlier this week that its alternate Director Vivek Badrinath had resigned after serving in that capacity for over three years. Badrinath’s resignation took effect on the 20th of March 2020, and he has been replaced by Francesco Bianco. It was announced on Friday that Bianco had been appointed as the new Substantive Director...
Vodacom Group and Safaricom’s M-Pesa platform has ambitions to do more than just provide mobile money services, reports BusinessTech. Managing executive for M-Pesa at Vodacom, Chris Williamson, said it plans things like enterprise services, group lending and other financial services. However, it does not have plans to become a digital bank, which operates on a...
Amazon Web Services (AWS), the largest cloud computing platform on Earth, has been planning to set up an Edge location in Kenya for some time now. However new developments in Nairobi between Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and AWS execs have seen the signing of a strategic agreement between the Amazon service and Kenya’s largest mobile operator,...
Safaricom, Kenya’s largest mobile operator by subscribers, has completed testing and trials of 5G services, and plans to roll out a commercial network later this year. Business Daily quotes the firm’s Acting CEO Michael Joseph as saying that it will initially target major urban centres in select cities with the new 5G service. He added that the...
Kenya’s listed mobile phone operator Safaricom recorded 14.4 per cent growth in net profit for the six months to September 30, buoyed by increased activities on its mobile money payment platform M-Pesa and a surge in the usage of its mobile data bundles. The telco, whose overall customer numbers climbed to 34.6 million from 26.6...
Safaricom has been offered a path to enter the Ethiopian market after Addis Ababa issued a timetable for the auction of two new telecoms licences. Ethiopia said last week that it plans to award the permits by April next year and firms keen on bidding have until November 22 to show interest, opening the country’s...
Safaricom’s share of mobile subscribers fell to 63.5 percent in the full year ended June, making it the lowest market share it has recorded in the last decade as rival Airtel steadily won over its customers. The latest data from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) shows that although Safaricom has the highest number of...
Kenya’s dominant telecommunications services provider Safaricom has been accused of interfering in the planned merger of Airtel and Telkom. In February 2019, ITWeb Africa reported on the planned merger of Airtel and Telkom in Kenya to establish a joint venture Airtel-Telkom. The newly formed entity would compete directly with Safaricom for market share. Telkom Kenya’s chief executive...
