The Kenyan government is mulling a division of the nation’s largest publicly listed company, Safaricom, into mobile, tower, and mobile money units, citing potential efficiency and value gains.
Bloomberg reported that Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi said the government had identified “huge benefit” from splitting Safaricom three ways. The telecoms arm would focus solely on voice and data services, the tower unit would manage network infrastructure, and mobile money platform M-Pesa would operate under the direct oversight of the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) as an independent financial services company.
There have long been calls for M-Pesa to be spun off from Safaricom due to its dominance — the service controls over 90% of mobile money transactions in Kenya — raising competition concerns. The CBK has expressed support for separating M-Pesa from its parent.
Safaricom has resisted such pressure, with CEO Peter Ndegwa arguing in May 2024 that spinning off M-Pesa would not increase shareholder value, favouring instead a group structure. Safaricom and Vodacom acquired the M-Pesa platform from Vodafone in 2020 through a joint venture.
A potential motivation for the government in pushing a Safaricom split is to increase the value of its 35% stake in the operator, raising much-needed revenue for state coffers.
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