By Adedapo Adesanya
Top Kenyan telecoms company, Safaricom, has it will delve into the technology solutions sector to offer new financial solutions to small businesses and farmers.
According to the new CEO of the company, Mr Peter Ndegwa, Safaricom will also expand its operations to Ethiopia to explore the market in the Horn of Africa.
Mr Ndegwa was named as the successor of Mr Bob Collymore, who died in July 2019. He noted that the future of the company would come from combining technology and innovation.
Listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE), Safaricom is one of the biggest companies in East Africa. Its success is fuelled by its mobile money service Mpesa, which was launched in 2007 and is considered one of the largest service providers in Kenya.
“We want to move away from being a telecom business into a purpose-led technology company,” he said.
“That will mean that we will use technology to create change in other ecosystems in the same way that we have done with Mpesa in the financial services area, in areas such as agriculture, health, education,” he explained.
Mr Ndegwa cited that it has already begun the rollout of Digifarm, a mobile platform that allows farmers to access loans, insurance, as well as markets where they can sell their products.
It also gives farmers information and advice on managing their livestock or crops.
The company also wants to extend more services to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), a major driver of Kenya’s economy.
Currently, with Mpesa, users can send money directly to each other, pay their bills and buy goods at shops and supermarkets, all from their mobile phones and it wants to tap this to expand its reaches to SMEs.
“We are working to enable SMEs being in control of their business and to grow their business,” said the Safaricom CEO.
He noted that a new product for SMEs will allow them to pay salaries or suppliers via a special application.
On the international level, the company is trying to forge partnerships with Visa and Paypal which would allow its clients to make money transfers across the globe.
“In addition to that, we are looking at expanding Mpesa. We have already expressed interest to enter Ethiopia, and we are going through that process.”
Mpesa has 25 million users in Kenya and another 15 million in other countries on the continent, such as Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
This is coming after Ethiopia opened up its telecoms sector, ending a government monopoly under Ethio Telecom, which could allow foreign companies a foothold in a country of 110 million people.
Safaricom is 35 per cent owned by the Kenyan government, 40 per cent by South Africa’s Vodacom, while the remaining shares are listed. It announced a 13.3 per cent revenue growth in its results for the year ending March 2020.
Aduragbemi Omiyale