Safaricom News
Safaricom is Testing a Digital Health Passport Programme
Image sourced from Techweez Safaricom has begun testing Afya Moja – a mobile health records system – in partnership with Nakuru County. The initial pilot programme will see over 100,000 people be part of the integrated electronics medical records program. According to TechIsh, Afya Moja is a simple mobile-based Digital Health Passport that receives and securely stores patient information. With the platform, users can access a copy of their health information, and share it with trusted healthcare providers. “So, a doctor can for example, upon receiving consent from a user, have access to their medical background, helping them effectively handle whatever [medical] situation is at hand.” Steve Chege, Chief of Corporate Affairs at Safaricom, says “what we aim to do through Afya Moja, is to mak...
mySafaricom App Launches on the Huawei App Gallery
Sourced from Tech Weez. The Safaricom App is now available for download from the Huawei App Gallery. The app provides Safaricom customers with a user-friendly way to access the telco’s products and services. Through the app, users can: M-PESA SEND MONEY– Select their contacts directly from their phone book, Hakikisha the name of the person they are transferring money to and check the transaction charges before hitting the send button. LIPA NA M-PESA – Shop and pay for their bills with ease at their favourite stores. TOP-UP – Recharge their number or that of their loved ones by selecting numbers directly from their phone book. VIEW BALANCES – View their account balances for Data, Bonga, Airtime or Credit limit HOME FIBRE – Safaricom Home Fibre customers will be able to pay or change their H...
Safaricom could Reduce M-Pesa Transaction Fees
Image sourced from TechWeez Safaricom could reduce M-Pesa transaction fees, according to Business Daily who also suggested that the telco is considering this move in an effort to “retain the higher business volumes that followed the imposition of free M-Pesa for deals of up to Sh1,000”. Safaricom CEO, Peter Ndegwa confirmed this, saying “We intend to reduce our transaction costs over time. How quickly we do that is something we want to judge but certainly, we haven’t made a decision yet at this stage.” Kenyan Senators Call for Safaricom to Split Senators in Kenya believe that Safaricom should split into two firms – Mobile Services and M-PESA. According to The Star, a split would see the mobile telephony service is regulated by the Communication Authority of Kenya (CAK) and t...
Kenyan Senators Call for Safaricom to Split
Senators in Kenya believe that Safaricom should split into two firms – Mobile Services and M-PESA. According to The Star, a split would see the mobile telephony service is regulated by the Communication Authority of Kenya (CAK) and the M-Pesa division regulated by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK). A recent report by TechWeez revealed that senators believe there should be a level playing ground for the likes of Telkom and Airtel Kenya who operate at the mercy of Safaricom as they owe it billions of shillings. “The market is not competitive any more. The other operators should be allowed to operate, by giving the dominant operator its right, but also allowing the others to operate, and allow innovation in the country,” says Senator Petronilla Were of the ICT committee. Senator Iru...
Safaricom Appoints New Board Chairman
Sourced from CGTN. Safaricom has appointed Michael Joseph (the telco’s former CEO) as new board chairman, he succeeds Nicholas Ng’ang’a who has retired. Joseph will take up this position effective 1 August 2020. “Mr Ng’ang’a took up the leadership reins at a time when the government was starting the process of offering 25 per cent of its shares to the public through the Nairobi Securities Exchange in 2008. He has managed to grow shareholder value by 607 per cent since listing,” says Safaricom CEO, Peter Ndegwa. “At the time of his appointment as chairman, Safaricom had slightly over six million customers, 1,000 employees and only eight Safaricom shops across the country. Mr Ng’ang’a retires from the telco that now serves over 35.6 million customers, across 50 shops and hundreds of service ...
M-PESA is Close to a 99% Market Share in Kenya
Sourced from Tech Weez. As of 31 March 2020, the number of registered mobile money subscriptions in Kenya was 29.1 million. This space is dominated by Safaricom with M-PESA having a 98.8% market share. The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) reports that Airtel Money comes in a far, far second at 1.1%, and third is T-Kash at a 0.05% share. Equitel, which is regarded more as a banking product than a mobile money service was not ranked by the CA. Launched in 2007, M-PESA has become a Kenyan stable, with Tech Weez writing that as of right now the service and its products are symbiotic with the country’s economy so far as to be impossible to run a business without it, or any other mobile money platform. M-PESA’s success has also firmly planted Kenya in the world map, the service is consider...
Safaricom Eyes an Opportunity to Expand into Ethiopia
Sourced from CGTN. Safaricom PLC is planning to extend its reach into Ethiopia, Kenya’s northern neighbour. Although not initially successful with its first few attempts, new changes within the Ethiopian government may prove beneficial for the mobile carrier to finally establish a presence within the country. Last month, the Ethiopian government said that it would be impossible for Safaricom’s M-PESA service to have any space in the market. The Ethiopian central bank about reiterated that no foreign financial institutions would be allowed to offer mobile money services in the country. Now, the good news for Safaricom is that the company was recently offered a window to buy into Ethio Telecom, the country’s mass-monopoly provider whose privatisation process is currently underway. This is on...
