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Kenya’s Safaricom undecided on new savings product after testing

December 27, 2019

Safaricom is undecided on when to commercially roll out a new savings service on its M-Pesa platform that the telecoms operator has been testing for weeks.

Acting CEO Michael Joseph said the firm had completed testing the new product, dubbed “Mali” (Kiswahili for wealth), but its fate remains unknown.

Mali, which has capped savings at Sh70, 000 per saver, will offer an annual interest rate of 10 percent, higher than what is offered by commercial banks.

Policymakers say Kenya suffers from a low national savings rate and analysts said that Safaricom could be looking to target the untapped market with the new savings product.

“Mali was and is a trial with only Safaricom staff and a few customers. It has now been completed and we have yet to decide to launch it or not with the requisite approvals,” said Mr Joseph in an interview with the Business Daily without giving more details. At 10 percent, the return from Mali is nearly double the current interest rate that banks are paying on savings. Official data shows that average savings interest fell to 4.58 percent in September compared to 6.33 percent in the same month last year when Parliament made changes to the banking law and removed a clause that compelled banks to pay depositors at least 70 percent of the base lending rate.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world

Kenya’s Biggest Telecom Operator Safaricom Starts Digital Postal Services For Its Ecommerce Business

November 29, 2019

Safaricom is targeting last mile deliveries for its ecommerce business. The biggest telecoms operator in Kenya has just started a digital postal service that will use mobile phone numbers like the traditional post office box addresses, it said on Friday.

“At the touch of a button, MPost provides anyone in the country with a virtual post office box and can easily receive parcels and letters,” Joe Mucheru, the minister for information and communication, said at the launch of the service.

Here Is All You Need To Know

Dubbed MPost, the service will be offered jointly with the Postal Corporation of Kenya, which will rent out physical post office boxes to Safaricom customers using their mobile phone numbers, at a quarter of the going rate for conventional boxes.
Customers who opt to have their parcels delivered to their doors will have to pay extra, Safaricom said.
Users will be notified though a short message that their mail has arrived, allowing them go pick it up from the counter, Safaricom and the Postal Corporation said.

“Kenya’s economy is increasingly digitising, leading to the growth of online delivery of goods and services,” said Safaricom acting CEO Michael Joseph during the launch of MPost.

Read also: Jumia Deploys Post Offices For Last Mile Deliveries In Kenya

Safaricom And the eCommerce Business

Safaricom, which also counts Britain’s Vodafone and the Kenyan government as key shareholders, has evolved into a platform company, offering mobile financial services via M-Pesa as well other services.
Its attempt to break into the growing e-commerce business, which is dominated by companies such as Jumia Technologies , has, however, been more slow than expected.
Its e-commerce platform, Masoko, which was launched in 2017 needed further investments and a potential relaunch, Safaricom said earlier this year, without elaborating.
Safaricom’s more than 30 million users will access services from 625 postal outlets across the country, said Post Master General Dan Kagwe, adding that the postal service was adapting to meet customer demand in the digital world.