Yup Bernard. Great to see you on the list.. :-) Regards *Ali Hussein* *Principal* *AHK & Associates* Tel: +254 713 601113 Twitter: @AliHKassim Skype: abu-jomo LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim <http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim> 13th Floor , Delta Towers, Oracle Wing, Chiromo Road, Westlands, Nairobi, Kenya. Any information of a personal nature expressed in this email are purely mine and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the organizations that I work with. On Mon, Mar 12, 2018 at 1:51 PM, Bernard Matthewman < matthewmanb@googlemail.com> wrote:

I agree with the P2P approach, however reading the article this appears to be the reason they are downsizing, the CEO says “This means building a sustainable, profitable company that offers impact for customers and returns for investors.”.

I think a relatively mature startup like M-Kopa is expected to make some corrections to staff numbers as they grow. Anyone with experience in growing a business will know it is not linear, the danger signs for me are when businesses ignore ‘building a sustainable and profitable company’ and use other metrics like numbers of customers or click throughs for their valuations.

*From: *kictanet <kictanet-bounces+matthewmanb= gmail.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke> on behalf of Ali Hussein via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> *Reply-To: *KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke

...

*Date: *Monday, 12 March 2018 at 10:40 *To: *<matthewmanb@gmail.com> *Cc: *Ali Hussein <ali@hussein.me.ke> *Subject: *Re: [kictanet] M-Kopa Solar fires 18% of its staff including all developers, outsources work to a foreign company

Brian

Exactly! In one sentence you have hit the nail on the head. The new game in town is P2P (and here I mean Path 2 Profitability not Peer2Peer) :-)

Regards

*Ali Hussein*

*Principal*

*AHK & Associates*

Tel: +254 713 601113

Twitter: @AliHKassim

Skype: abu-jomo

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

13th Floor , Delta Towers, Oracle Wing,

Chiromo Road, Westlands,

Nairobi, Kenya.

Any information of a personal nature expressed in this email are purely mine and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the organizations that I work with.

On Mon, Mar 12, 2018 at 1:30 PM, Brian Munyao Longwe via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

Hmm, they've burnt through US$ 152 million in less than 7 years... and are downsizing instead of scaling up...I'd be a very worried investor if I had skin in *that* game....

My two cents,

Mblayo

On Mon, Mar 12, 2018 at 11:14 AM, anyega jefferson via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

Follow the money, chief, which strategy creates the lowest operating costs?

And we kinda can't begrudge anyone , for seeking profit maximization, though i'd think Kenyan developers are the most affordable

On Mon, Mar 12, 2018 at 12:04 PM, Watila Alex via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

Good Afternoon,

Are kenyan developers to expensive or unable to meet the grade. or is something else happening here

Article from M-Kopa Solar fires 18% of its staff including all developers, outsources work to a foreign company <http://kenyanwallstreet.com/m-kopa-solar-fires-18-of-its-staff-including-all-developers-outsources-work-to-a-foreign-company-linked-to-new-cto>

M-Kopa Solar fires 18% of its staff including all developers, outsources...

Kenya based pay-as-you-go solar provider M-KOPA Solar has fired undisclosed number of staff including most of it...

Kenya based pay-as-you-go solar provider M-KOPA Solar has fired undisclosed number of staff including most of its developers. According to people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity, the developers work has now been outsourced to a foreign company that is linked to the company’s new CTO.

The exercise, which was completed in December last year affected a number of employees and some of whom were absorbed by Safaricom according to the source.

We sought comments from the company’s CEO and Co-Founder Jesse Moore, who confirmed the layoffs and explained that they were necessary due to rising costs of technology and there was need to generate profits and give returns to investors.

“I can confirm that we completed a restructuring process in December 2017. This was done to reduce fixed costs and keep us on the path to profitability. Overall, the company reduced headcount by 18% covering all departments and all levels in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and UK. We are outsourcing more of our technology work, maintaining a smaller in-house team to work directly with outsourcing partners in Kenya and overseas.” he noted.

He went on to say that this was the right thing for the company’s long-term sustainability, “This means building a sustainable, profitable company that offers impact for customers and returns for investors.”

On whether the company had outsourced the IT services to a company that is linked to the new CTO, this is what he said.

“In mid-2017 our Acting CTO was seconded to us from one of our outsourcing partners, when our previous CTO left the company. Our board approved this and the individual is strictly recused on procurement decisions with companies where could be a potential conflict of interest.”

The company was started by Nick Hughes, an Englishman, and his Canadian co-founder, Jesse Moore. Hughes is a former executive at Vodafone, while Moore was working for the GSMA Development Fund, a mobile telecommunications industry group, where he was in charge of identifying opportunities to make mobile services available to people in developing countries. M-kopa is one of the best-funded startups in Africa having raised more than $152 Million since inception in 2011. However, a big chunk of this financing is in form of debt.

Regards,

Alex

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_______________________________________________ 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/ Domain Registration sponsored by www.eacdirectory.co.ke Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/ matthewmanb%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.