[kictanet] Airtel Plans Africa Exit

Mon Jan 30 10:20:15 EAT 2017

Ali,

Analyzing why Safaricom has dominated this market in such Key areas as
Mobile Telephony, Payment Services etc is probably something that would
qualify for a PHD thesis.

Here's what I know though:
1. Are Safaricom's Customers happy? Answer is, do they have a choice? Go
back to Microsoft's heyday, were you actually really happy with Windows
'98? Did you have a *choice*?

2. Yes, Safaricom could have better services than Airtel & Telkom, although
I doubt, having been a user of both Safaricom & Airtel over 15yrs. Even if
they were better, how do you reconcile that they are maybe 4 times the size
of the rest of the competition? Are they 4x better than say Airtel? I doubt.

Now, onto things MPesa, I think Safaricom does MPesa a great injustice of
not spinning it off. I want MPesa (with all its associated services) on my
Airtel line.

MPesa needs to be listed on NASDAQ! MPesa needs to be the third choice
globally after VISA & Mastercard!

But there's the not so small matter of who actually owns MPesa!

Onto matters regulation, if I was CBK, I would be very concerned if one
such firm had that much 'power' over the money transfer market.

Rgds

On Mon, Jan 30, 2017 at 9:10 AM, Ali Hussein <ali at hussein.me.ke> wrote:

> Ngigi
>
> :-)
>
> The issue of Mobitelea aside (because we will really never know how that
> went down) Safaricom is simply better at everything:-
>
> 1. Their lobbying is simply superior and a thing of beauty to watch.
> Lobbying is an acceptable practice the world over. Please don't complain
> when your competitor is doing a better job at it than you..
>
> 2. Which industry is Safaricom in? Energy? (Mkopa Solar with 500k
> subscribers simply won't have existed without the symbiotic relationship
> they have with Mpesa. And Safaricom skims off the top as per agreement);
> Banking? CBA without Mshwari is a shell; Payments?  Lipa na Mpesa is giving
> Visa and Mastercard a run for their money; TV? Zuku is about to feel real
> competition. And the list goes on.
>
> 3. I'm keen to see the Dominance Report because I think we need to expand
> our thinking. I don't believe there is anyone today who has Dominance in
> any particular area at least not in the traditional way we have defined
> Dominance.
>
> 4. The thing of course to watch is abuse of Market Dominance.  And this in
> itself a slippery slop. Once The US Government tried to break up Microsoft.
> What the Government couldn't do the Market did. Free Markets are the
> greatest equalizer.
>
> Let us be careful what we wish for. In as long as the customer is
> generally happy we have nothing to fear.
>
> *Ali Hussein*
> *Principal*
> *Hussein & Associates*
> +254 0713 601113
>
> Twitter: @AliHKassim
>
> Skype: abu-jomo
>
> LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim
>
> "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a
> habit."  ~ Aristotle
>
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On 30 Jan 2017, at 8:29 AM, Ngigi Waithaka <ngigi at at.co.ke> wrote:
>
> Ali,
>
> The only palatable End Game; Equitel buys off Airtel Kenya, combines it
> with Helios stake @Telkom
>
> Massive innovation thereafter would get back some respectable market share.
>
> Truth be told, Safaricom's cozzyiness with GoK has helped it along big
> time. I dare say if Kencell has ceded 10% to Mobitelea, as Safaricom was
> more than glad to do, we'd probably be speaking a different story right now!
>
> What these foreign firms investing in Africa need to remember is.......
>
> THIS IS AFRICA!
> On 28 Jan 2017 8:40 a.m., "Ali Hussein via kictanet" <
> kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
>
>> Listers
>>
>> Another one bites the dust?
>>
>> I'm really curious as to whats going on in the Telco sector.
>>
>> Bharti Airtel has announced that it will be exiting 14 African countries
>> within a year. The affected countries include: Chad, Congo, Gabon, Ghana,
>> Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Tanzania,
>> Uganda and Zambia.
>>
>> The telecom operator is faced with poor performance across those markets.
>> Two years ago, when Airtel began talks to sell off its operations in
>> Burkina Faso, Chad, Congo Brazzaville and Sierra Leone to Orange
>> <http://mobilityarena.com/airtel-not-exiting-africa-despite-talks-to-sell-4-networks-to-orange/>,
>> the company had stated that it wouldn’t be exiting Africa.
>> Airtel plans Africa exit
>> <http://mobilityarena.com/airtel-exit-nigeria-13-african-countries/>
>>
>> Is the African market too competitive or is the regulatory environment
>> skewed towards a few players?
>>
>> *Ali Hussein*
>>
>> *Principal*
>>
>> *Hussein & 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.
>>
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>

-- 
*Regards,*

*Wait**haka Ngigi*
Chief Executive Officer | Alliance Technologies | MCK Nairobi Synod Building
T +254 20 525 0750 |Office Mobile: +254 716 201061 | M +254 737 811 000
www.at.co.ke
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