The operator Safaricom would be in advanced talks with the Ethiopian government to introduce into the country its popular mobile money service, M-Pesa, it was learned on Tuesday.
The information, not confirmed for the time by the management of the Kenyan company, was unveiled in the day by the Reuters news agency, which quotes in support two anonymous sources close to the case. Specifically, the British Vodafone, the parent company of Safaricom, should allow the use of the trade name M-Pesa by an Ethiopian bank (which has not been specified) while the service would be provided by the Ethiopian telecommunications monopoly, Ethio Telecom. Safaricom would nevertheless continue to host the servers in Nairobi.
With this new ambition to conquer the Ethiopian market, there is no doubt that the operator will try to replicate the recipe that made his success at home: launched in 2007, M-Pesa now has nearly 30 million users in Kenya and has become the main driver of earnings growth for Safaricom, as voice revenues have been significantly eroded in recent years.
And behind the case Safaricom, the arrival of other large Kenyan companies in Ethiopia now seems to be registered, the latter being well placed to take advantage of the wave of political and economic liberalization unleashed during the last three months by the new Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed. Joshua Oigara, CEO of banking group KCB, the first Kenyan financial institution by asset size ($ 6.4 billion) recalled last week that he was looking for a partner in Addis Ababa to take advantage of the announced opening of the Ethiopian banking sector, currently controlled by the state.
