I'm keen to understand how a technology which is a commodity ( read here that Safaricom can also implement the same technology) can usurp Safaricom's unassailable lead in this space.

Technology is an accelerator and NOT The Strategy in itself. Assume first that what you can access in the open market (as opposed to restricted technology under patent) your competitors can do so too. We usually forget this but MPesa isn't even the best mobile technology in the country. Not even by a long short! They managed to capture their base through first mover advantage and a positioning statement that was apparently well received by Kenyans. And of course there is the Network Effect of being ubiquitous in the space.

Equity needs to execute with excellence and not depend on the Technology to take on Safaricom.

Needless to say I would love to be a fly on the wall in the strategy sessions currently going on in both companies. Careers will be made or broken on this..no doubt about that.

Ali Hussein

+254 770 906375 / 0713 601113

Twitter: @AliHKassim

Skype: abu-jomo

LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim

Blog: www.alyhussein.com

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

Sent from my iPad

On Sep 16, 2014, at 1:06 PM, Collins Areba via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

"We are glad to use this platform to deliver an extension service to our customers, It is our heartfelt desire to satisfy our customers first, and if technology affords us that opportunity, we are obliged to take up on it. If the same technology should allow us to interact with our customers, and have an opportunity to give them voice and data in the same breath, then why not, those would be extras to the benefit of our client... "

Paraphrased from memory during an interview on Citizen last week. I think this opens the game wide Open, and For the Record, Safaricom should be given a Commercial Banking license.

My 10 Cents.

On Tue, Sep 16, 2014 at 12:06 PM, Walubengo J via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

Listers,

I thought you might find this interesting,

----------------
After Equity Bank decided to directly play in the mobile money market by issuing its own SIM cards, we debated heatedly in a previous blog whether Safaricom had finally met its match. At the time, it was assumed that Equity would be selling the traditional SIM card, which would require customers to either buy dual SIM-card phones or carry two phones in order to access services from two existing providers.

Even within the inconvenient scenario above, Equity with its large customer base was bound to pose some significant competition to the leading mobile money provider Safaricom. The surprise, it seems, is the secret weapon Equity unveiled recently in the form of a Thin-SIM Card....
------
Read more @
http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/blogs/dot9/walubengo/-/2274560/2453920/-/11d48l2z/-/index.html

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Regards,

Collins Areba,

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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.