Safaricom denies Fortumo billing deal claims

Trouble has brewed over in Kenya. Safaricom has ordered payments company Fortumo to withdraw any statements, whether published or unpublished, regarding the signing of a mutually beneficial billing agreement between the two companies.

Back in January 2015, Fortumo had published a statement claiming it had entered into a partnership with Safaricom, and that this was the third deal it had secured in Africa; However, Safaricom has now distanced itself from the European firm. Safaricom claims it has not entered into any such agreements with Fortumo. Safaricom has also gone as far as to order Fortumo to remove the statement from its website.

Fortumo’s head of marketing Mattias Liivak stated to media that the firm had been testing the service locally over the past few months and that it was “publicly launched last week.” Upon further questioning, regarding the specifics of the agreement, Liivak admitted that “there was no launch from Safaricom’s side,” this is according to Business Daily.

Darryl Linington