A statement from the National Assembly is seeking an explanation why telco Safaricom is using non-Kenya companies in the management of its Fibre product.
The statement was sought from the ICT CS, in regards to the contractual works and agreements of Safaricom fibre optics.
It wants to understand why the telco is working with foreign companies, including M/s Egypro East Africa Ltd and Camusat in space where there are Kenyan companies that are up to the task.
It is not clear whether the carrier has contractual obligation to using Kenyan companies over foreign ones.
The carrier has also been doing a good job with its fibre network, which it has consistently expanded to other towns besides Nairobi and its surroundings.
As of June 2020 , Home Fibre has more than 185K subscribers and is only behind Wanachi Group’s Zuku at 188K subscriptions.
Furthermore, Home Fibre’s penetration of homes passed increased 10.6ppts since FY20 to 53.5%. Safaricom is also said to be expanding its enterprise portfolio, which also includes FTTB.
At the start of the pandemic, the operator doubled Home Fibre speeds to help households overcome the financial constraints accompanied by the spread of the virus.
So far, the company has not given a response to the statement, but our guess is that the organization has the mandate to offer the best services to customers, which means working with the most competent teams out there, whether they are Kenyan or otherwise.
Besides fibre services, the operator’s 4G coverage has since expanded to 91 percent in Kenya, and the company reported it targets to cover the whole country before the end of 2020.