In my opinion Safaricom is doing what is required of a commercial company especially one with majority foreign interest. 

The government should be doing what it needs to do especially being with a majority local interest. That Safaricom is the biggest tax payer is a problem itself. I would advocate for the unbundling of the various businesses such that MPESA is a separate business from the telco even if Safaricom maintain 100% ownership. 

The idea is not to punish Safaricom for first mover advantage but to ease the choke hold in the industry. Mobile money should be controlled by the CBK the same way banks are. I don't understand why the hesitance. 

That we are still comfortable that 30% of our GDP is transacted by a single company with servers sitting in Europe is rather ridiculous. 


On Thu, Nov 21, 2013 at 3:45 AM, Ali Hussein <ali@hussein.me.ke> wrote:
Listers

As Safaricom is in the news again accused of abusing its market power, this time in the mobile money space I think we should now start asking the tough questions:-

Should Regulators force interoperability in the Mobile Money & Banking space? 

Will it spur more usage beyond the normal money transfer services towards a truly seamless and well oiled mcommerce revolution? 

What are the implications of this if at all the Regulator has the foresight and muscle to force this?

How about IP Laws? Will this be unfair to Safaricom seeing as it is that they built this dominant position through sheer hard work and seamless execution of strategy? Or is this a mute point since we are now discussing a greater good beyond one company?

http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Corporate-News/Safaricom-calls-M-Pesa-war-truce/-/539550/2082040/-/item/0/-/awsfy1/-/index.html

Safaricom is obviously using the Network Effect to the max and it is as it should. One begs the question however whether it was wise and prudent to follow this strategy to muzzle the competition? In some case its costs more than three times to cross use the Mpesa platform to any of the other mobile money services. For how much longer should the regulator allow this anti-competitive practice to continue unabated?
 
Ali Hussein


"I fear the day technology will surpass human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots".  ~ Albert Einstein

Sent from my iPad

_______________________________________________
kictanet mailing list
kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke
https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet

Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/mwangy%40gmail.com

The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.

KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.



--
Regards,

Mark Mwangi

markmwangi.me.ke