[kictanet] Airtel Plans Africa Exit

Mon Jan 30 11:35:50 EAT 2017

Ngigi

Good observations. I'd repeat what I said a few months ago:-

Even though we celebrate Mpesa's Payment 'Dominance' let me make the following  observations:-

1. Over 90% of transactions are still in cash. Even in the US and Europe cash still makes a significant part of transactions. So the issue of Mpesa's Dominance doesn't even come into play. We overemphasize this Dominance maybe to make ourselves feel good as Kenyans? :-) #JustSaying 

2.  There is NO dominant global player in payments. Not Visa, Not Mastercard, Not even PayPal. The space is simply too fragmented. 

3. If I were Safaricom/Vodaphone I'd already have spurn off Mpesa as a standalone company and exploited its merits to the full. The first one would be to make it totally Network Agnostic and super UX so that we simply don't think of anything else. The second would be to convince Vodaphone that the home of Mpesa is not London but Nairobi so bring it back to Ground Zero of innovation in Africa and seriously exploit it as a Platform/Bank and invite all and sundry to plug into the platform and listen to the increased sounds of CHING CHING!! :-)

4. On the matter of Microsoft and all other supposed Monopolies I have this to say:-

This is 2017. Not even Governments are strong enough to defy markets. 

Enough said.

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 10:20 AM, Ngigi Waithaka <ngigi at at.co.ke> wrote:
> 
> 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, the company had stated that it wouldn’t be exiting Africa.
>>>> 
>>>> Airtel plans Africa exit
>>>> 
>>>> 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
>>>> 
>>>> 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,
> 
> Waithaka 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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