Hi John and Listers
a) Is their development platform and application
programmable interface (API) sufficiently open?
safaricom does not have this well documented and you have to make a number of
guess emails most often to the wrong department or person, Something that could
take hours ends up taking weeks and sometime months. One get the impression
that safaricom is under staffed or the staff are just ignoring your email but
it not that bad this days I was give a call account manager that is quite
helpful sometime I don’t need to email I
just call her up.. and things are done.. I think she got the job because of her
voice..
b) Are the issues to do with Intellectual property
/Patents/Procurement clear and adequate?
Lot of grey line in this but safaricom based competition is
very clear on this outlining ownership and all..
c) Whereas the gain-sharing agreements are private and
confidential, how can they be made better?
I think safaricom is NOT in the business of sealing ideas
but Most employees being Kenyan have a keen eye on opportunities.. other
employees have vested interest in competing
businesses and will lock you up new idea to be launched where they can eat from..
I think having applications to be view-able by more than one employee in the
business would help but I would recommend you pray very very hard if possible
fast for 40 days before sharing with this guys in private
d) What is Safcom take on Bitcoin/Blockchain technologies?
If bitcoin gained high traction that I would be in a position
to purchase sukuma from the kibanda via bitcoin other operators would come to
raise at the expense of the home currency just as we don’t trade in gold and
gold is represented in reserve via the currency notes, we would trade in
bitcoin represented in Kenya currency.. I don’t see M-Pesa in the Picture past
the currency loading yet they want you to Lipa Na M-Pesa kokote.. but may be am
other thinking..
To answer the question Safaricom is more some reason against
bitcoin and has show this by not supporting bitcoin based startups