Safaricom braces for competition on key cash earner

Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore says the firm has a strategy that has been approved by the board and will focus on growing partnerships and not competition.

NAIROBI, KENYA: Safaricom Ltd, East Africa’s biggest cellular-network operator, is bracing for competition in its key mobile-money business that helped boost first-half profit by 30 per cent, Chief Executive Officer Bob Collymore has said.

Bharti Airtel Ltd’s Kenyan unit has begun rolling out a product with Equity Bank Ltd, the country’s largest lender, which offers clients the ability to do financial transactions using their mobile phones. Safaricom’s service, known as M-Pesa, handles transactions worth Sh121.3 billion a month and the product contributes about a fifth to revenue that grew 15 per cent to Sh79.3 billion in the six months through September.