Safaricom opposes calls to declare it dominant market player

Kenya: Safaricom has termed as unfair the push to declare it a dominant player in the market. Chief Executive Officer Bob Collymore noted that the integrated telecoms services provider rolled out its network at the same time as others.

“In fact at some time we were not the leading player. We have worked so hard to be where we are. It is therefore unfortunate that some of our competitors want us declared dominant player,”he said.

“We have worked very hard to build this company... we started at the same time as everybody else and at some time we were not the largest.”

Collymore (pictured), who spoke when he paid a courtesy call on Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya, said declaring Safaricom a dominant player as proposed by some of its competitors will disadvantage it.

split company

Doing so, he said, will imply they split the company along a number of functions including Internet, M-pesa and mobile voice, a move he described as impossible.

“We managed the institution prudently and for people to think of punishing us for good management is not fair. If customers decide to come with us because we don’t push them, and they decide to stay with us because the propositions are right. Then you want to break a company like that, I think that is crazy,” Collymore said.

Communications Authority of Kenya has been under pressure to declare Safaricom a dominant player. ICT Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i has even written a letter to the authority, asking why Safaricom has not been declared a dominant provider. Matiang’i also demanded a brief on what the watchdog was doing in preparation to declare Safaricom a dominant player.

“The Kenya Information and Communications Act section 84W gives the Communications Authority of Kenya powers to declare a service provider to be dominant if their market share is at least 50 per cent of the relevant gross market segment,” he noted.

Meanwhile, Collymore has said the company is set to improve its coverage in western Kenya with plans to upgrade more than 12 booster stations. The Safaricom Foundation, he stated, will partner with the county government of Kakamega in the fight to curb high child and maternal mortality in the county.

He said the firm would support the OparanyaCare programme, which aims to end mother-child mortality rates during and after birth. Collymore said they have visited the county and learnt some of the challenges facing residents.

Oparanya asked Safaricom to provide access to cheap phones and Sim cards to facilitate OparanyaCare services through mobile phone services.

“We have asked the CEO and his team to provide access to cheap phone handsets, sim cards and network connectivity to OparanyaCare beneficiaries so that we can easily reach them to enhance the project,” he said.