Mwendwa, As stated before, I fully agree with Ali. No need to tamper with Safaricom. How well does their 4G network work in close proximity to their various office premises? They are not doing as well on providing affordable, effective data services as they are too focused on financial services. On Fri, Oct 25, 2019 at 12:57 PM Mwendwa Kivuva via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
Thank you, Ali, for those insightful remarks. I see why you are considered the godfather of Fintech in the region. Nobody can argue with numbers. Your message is loud and clear, instead of splitting Safaricom, facilitate it through better policies for it to go conquer the world. Fight there with the giants. I was looking at the world's largest telecommunications companies measured by total revenues <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_telephone_operating_companies#>, and Safaricom came at number 62 with $2.3B behind the market leader AT&T with $170.8B. The only other African company to make the cut was MTN Group of South Africa at 34 with $10.2B, dwarfing Safaricom 5 times over. AT&T, on the other hand, is Safaricom 74 times. In the Fintech space, Ant Finance the market leader is estimated to be worth $75B. Let us marinate over that.
@Barrack. You are spot on. I like your idea of having a localized definition of a digital economy and enabling environment from the government for our industries. What would be your initial definition of Kenya's digital economy?
@Muraya, good genesis on where the other operators lost the game, through poor corporate governance. Are you suggesting that Safaricom should be split, or change business model, or spin-off to be a market leader in financial services, while Telkom is funded (by?) to be a dominant telecommunications company?
@Adam great analogy on the different use-cases a telecommunications company can have. I can imagine this will only grow with 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT). I take this with me " Telcos’ have the unique capability to reach every single person in this country, they should be encouraged to do that rather than hindered. Right now e-health, e-agri etc are still really under-developed in this country. They need more support". Point taken also on what is the point of splitting it, then it becomes an affiliate of the same company? Probably for different tax streams as @Barrack has hinted. So that Safaricom will also need a Banking License.
@ Kanini Mutemi, not only are the products tied together within Safaricom but between Safaricom and other outside entities. I have a 4G Jamii Faiba line, and the only supported payment option is Safaricom Mpesa Paybill. I can imagine why businesses want to dictate payment options. For example, to reduce fraud from cash handling, and also for security reasons where bulk cash handlers are targeted by criminals. It is true this is changing our consumption patterns. ______________________ Mwendwa Kivuva, _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet Twitter: http://twitter.com/kictanet Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KICTANet/
Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/murigi.muraya%40gmail....
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.
-- SMM *"Better a patient person than a warrior, one with self-control than one who takes a city." Prov 16:32*