From January 2023, M-PESA will no longer be a part of Safaricom
The Safaricom split has long been a source of contention among lawmakers and others with vested interests in the matter. The story, while strongly contested by Safaricom's internal teams and top leadership, with former CEO the late Bob Collymore once saying that the company should never be punished for its success, was linked to the fact that Safaricom is too large and can be better run if its mobile money product M-PESA is spun off as a separate entity from carrier business.
Steve Mburu 
The conclusion that Safaricom was too large a company to compete fairly with smaller operators was never explicitly stated, though a study conducted by the British firm Analysys Mason found that the vast majority of the carrier and mobile money business tipped in Safaricom's favor. The approval of the ICT regulator Communications Authority allowed for the evaluation. Back in 2017, Analysys was the organization that originally proposed the concept of dividing Safaricom.
Kenyan senators looked into the issue in 2020, arguing that the division was required. They contend that this division of the two businesses will level the playing field because Safaricom may not face much competition from the likes of Telkom and Airtel Kenya. Additionally, they have stated that M-PESA would be under the CBK and its carrier business would be under the CA.
Many months later, however, MPs refused to investigate the Safaricom split. Except for two, all Members of Parliament opposed a new Bill that sought to apply such a split to all telcos. The Kenya Information and Communications (Amendment) Bill was sponsored by Elisha Odhiambo, who was the MP for Gem at the time.
So far, there have been notable developments in this debate. Safaricom appeared to have taken legislative pressure to split the company into account in the middle of this year after it was revealed that it would split the company.
Peter Ndegwa CEO Safaricom, speaking at shareholder event PHOTO FILE.
Following the division of the two companies, Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa disclosed that a holding company would be established to oversee the telco's mobile money services, towers, data services, and Ethiopian operations. Safaricom services are now operational in three cities in Ethiopia, where the business has already gone live. Sometime next week, the official launch is scheduled to go online.
We anticipate a holding company, likely a publicly traded company, and a large number of businesses operating under Safaricom in the future. We are also able to monetize some of the assets we currently possess, such as the towers that we may lease in the future, so we probably have a tower company, as previously stated by CEO Peter Ndegwa.
With Telkom and Airtel Kenya, Safaricom already shares infrastructure for paying bills and purchasing goods. Agency interoperability will also be operational by 2024.
Airtel Kenya has already separated its mobile money service, Airtel Money, from the rest of its offerings. It is the first company in Kenya to do so, and Telkom Kenya, with its T-Kash product, was supposed to do so around the same time as Airtel, but that has yet to happen.
According to CBK Governor Patrick Njoroge, the remaining split could be completed as soon as January.
As a result, M-PESA and T-Kash will join Airtel Money as separate operations from their parent companies.
