Safaricom Chief Executive Officer, Peter Ndegwa during the Safaricom MPESA SuperApp launch with Offline mode and mini Apps Telco Safaricom has fought off accusations it engages in unfair competition and told rivals to invest in infrastructure development and innovation.
Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa on Tuesday said the company has not undertaken any activity that has affected the ability of rivals to compete.
“Some of our competitors have shied away from the responsibility of building and running their own infrastructure. They do not own any base stations, they do not invest in fibre connectivity, they do not invest in call centres,” Ndegwa stated.
He said Safaricom’s share of the market has, in fact, been decreasing year on year to the current levels which shows that competition is gaining and growing.
“What Safaricom has done is capable of being replicated by any company should they undertake the same level of investment and approach to customers,” he added.
Ndegwa made the remarks when he appeared before the Senate Departmental Committee on Communication, Information and Innovation to answer to allegations of monopolistic practices by Safaricom.
He noted that in September 2000, Safaricom had 20,000 customers out of the total 130,000 at the time, translating to a market share of about 15 per cent.
“By 2010, Safaricom’s market share stood at 80.7 per cent but has over the last 10 years dropped to dropped to 63.6 per cent in December 2020 and now stands at 64.2 per cent as at 30th June 2021 according to the statistics published by the Communications Authority,” he pointed out.
“We did not start out at the top of the market but through great investment and innovation, we have attained our current position and with the support of Kenyans we will continue to raise the flag of innovation and access to connectivity within and beyond Kenya,” said Ndegwa.
On October 29, rival Airtel Kenya told the committee the information and communications technology market in the country does not enjoy fair competition.
Airtel Kenya said there has been no dispute as to the status of Safaricom as regards its dominance status and market power.“However, there has been reluctance in declaring Safaricom dominant in the retail mobile market and the retail mobile money market. Declaring Safaricom dominant is the first step to ensuring market competitiveness which we believe has been the sticking point and key barrier in taking any steps to rectify any market anomalies in Kenya,” it said.Officials of Airtel […]
