*ON OUR East Africa Rising RADAR* -- Kenya's Safaricomm Too Dominant?

by E.K.Bensah Jr

One of the reasons for Kenyans' legendary enjoyment of Internet resides with the fact that Kenya's Safaricomm has served Kenyans for years with mobile money services (Mpesa) & stable Internet -- much to the envy of countries like Ghana that sold 50% of state owned Ghana Telecom to Vodafone in 2008. Ghanaians can barely call Vodafone Ghana a state-owned entity, what with all the controversy that came with it.

Over in Kenya, however, lawmakers are having a field day contemplating whether they should break up Safaricomm into two parts as it has allegedly become too dominant. Curiously, Ghana has been going through similar discussions the past couple of months -- but with South African-owned MTN. MTN has ostensibly become a dominant player in Ghana handling both Internet, sim subscription and mobile money services more than any of the four other operators. The recent news that Airtel-Tigo may be folding up because it cannot withstand dominance of MTN has been eclipsed by our impending elections. Without a doubt, the conversation will re-surface. In the meantime, let's keep our eyes on Nairobi. Market dominance is never a great idea, but I am all for a Kenyan operator doing great things for its customers and doing it with some level of efficiency. No state-owned entity should be too big to fail, but the fact that it has come this far at all should be worthy of celebration! Accra, home of AFCFTA, are you watching? AfCFTA is here -- & we must get very serious at all value chains for the #AfricaWeWant! #ghanaKenya #mtnGhana #Safaricomm #vodafoneGhana  

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