Why Airtel Is Spoiling For War With Safaricom In Cash Transfer - TopicsExpress



          

Why Airtel Is Spoiling For War With Safaricom In Cash Transfer Saga By Kenneth Kwama November 22 2013 Airtel is set to reject an offer by its key market rival to negotiate a settlement in an abuse of dominance case it has filed against Safaricom before the Competitions Authority of Kenya (CAK) and will instead push for a full hearing. A top executive at the Bharti-owned firm told Weekend Business that Airtel will make its position clear once it receives official notification of Safaricom’s offer, but correspondence in our custody shows Safaricom had agreed to settle the matter after Airtel accused it of employing anti-competitive practice to further its dominance in the mobile money market via M-pesa. “The battle to open up the mobile money market is not a private matter between Airtel and Safaricom, but is an industry issue. It will only get the justice if it proceeds to full hearing,” said the Airtel executive who requested not to be named because the firm is yet to make its position on the matter official. Safaricom referred Weekend Business to the competitions regulator when asked to comment; “You may wish to pick the line of enquiry directly with the Competitions Authority of Kenya,” wrote the company’s Director of Corporate Affairs, Nzioka Waita in an e-mail response. Airtel had asked the authority to punish the market leader for what it called anti-competitive tendencies. Airtel says the market leader has been using its dominance to restrict competition in the mobile money market by among others, excluding competitor’s products from M-pesa retail outlets and levying hefty charges on unregistered users of the service. Airtel contends that in this case, unregistered users refer to those not listed as Safaricom’s customers, an exercise it says has been subjecting its customers to discrimination. It also alleges that Safaricom does not allow its retail M-pesa agents to offer financial services to other mobile commerce service providers or banks. “If a retail M-pesa agent is found offering financial services other than M-pesa, then such an agent is threatened,” wrote Airtel Kenya’s MD Shivan Bhargava in a letter addressed to the CAK Director General on September 19, 2012. On October 30, 2013 CAK wrote to Airtel, informing them that it had given Safaricom 21 days within which to submit its proposals on the settlement of the matter for consideration and appraisal. A successful request could see the cost of transactions tumbling down for ‘unregistered’ customers and open up M-pesa for usage by other mobile money transfer platforms like MobiKash, Airtel Money, yuCash, Orange Money and Tangaza. Currently, Safaricom controls over 80 per cent of the mobile money transfer service sector with its stranglehold on the mobile cash transfer market through M-pesa being credited as one the major reason for success.
Posted on: Sat, 23 Nov 2013 09:26:53 +0000

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