Tough Competition for Safaricom

Competition in Kenya’s mobile phone market could cut Safaricom’s market share by almost 25 percent in the next 3-4 years.
The Chief Financial Officer Les Baillie said that Safaricom would fight to continue to keep its paying corporate customers by offering a variety of services, including newly-launched third generation technology.
Johannesburg-based Econet Wireless and Telkom Kenya are both due to launch mobile services in Kenya next month; this is expected to affect safaricom and Celtel.
25 percent of Safaricom was sold by the Kenyan government, making it the regions most watched stock. According to Reuters, Safaricom has floated on the Nairobi stock exchange in June, Vodafone however leads the group which it has 40 percent stake in the firm.
Safaricom unveiled a 16 percent rise in its annual pre-tax profits to 19.9 billion Kenyan shillings in the year. The price of Safaricom shares 5.70 shillings compared to the previous days 5.80 shillings.
Baillie said that the new competitors will take time to build up coverage and a distribution network since the company has locked in its own vendors.

By IT News staff reporter