[kictanet] Equity says M-Pesa lines should be open

[Baiju Shah]

Hi All,

+1

Agreed with Ali, both Safaricom and Equity are known to have tried to run hand in hand on the mobile money, peer to peer transfers etc. After a failed attempt by Equity with m-kesho, where they had the right opportunity to exploit the network Safaricom has build out now they are complaining. The financial sector needs to agree on payment standards which they could get M-Pesa to align to thus bring and even playing field, but our bankers are continuously chasing M-Pesa and other mobile money products.

Today, if you consider what M-Pesa offers and it is very easy for the financial industry to replicate but requires the level of boldness and innovation that Safaricom under Michael J. displayed in an poorly regulated market or accept that Safaricom has the necessary banking licences to compete with them as stance of equal footing. Whilst CCK in return opens out an MVNO's licensing opportunity to other interested parties like financial institutions to increase competition. I foresee a financial institution or a supermarket (e.g. Tesco UK) could become one stop shop for providing various services provided by the a mobile network operator and a financial institution. This is leading to sophisticated bundling of services that provide the convenience a customer requires but leave the core competencies of running the MNO in the hands of specialist. The question here is of the customer footfall and how an organisation is able to services its customer requirements with the right value for money propositions.

That is my 2 cents worth on reflection of the on going discussion.

Best Regards,
Baiju Shah
Managing Partner
Telemedia Africa Ltd.
Tel. +254 787332247




On 1 Aug 2013, at 21:22, kictanet-request at lists.kictanet.or.ke wrote:

> Re: [kictanet] Equity says M-Pesa lines should be open