Bright Minds Of The Future

Safaricom’s innovation is in trouble. Recent product announcements from Safaricom seem to be driven by the government, third-party collaborations, or competitive pressure. Post-pandemic, there appears to be little internal discovery or innovation. Despite positioning itself as a fintech, Safaricom’s last commit on their GitHub repo was six years ago. Arrival of Starlink forced Safaricom to introduce a 1000mbps internet package. While competition benefits consumers by providing options, Safaricom needs to reflect on why there was such euphoria surrounding Elon Musk’s product. Consumers were cheering for Starlink and jeering at Safaricom. This reaction suggests there are deeper, more fundamental issues than just rolling out another expensive internet plan. Then there’s the reliance on third-party partnerships—primarily Visa and Mastercard. We’ve seen numerous partnership announcements but the tangible value to the everyday consumer like the kiosk owner remains unclear. If these partnerships are truly valuable, why not be courageous enough to build your own payment scheme, like Verve by Interswitch? Safaricom doesn’t need to accumulate logos for validation. Visa is now being sued by the U.S. government for monopolizing the debit card market. Shouldn’t we pause to reflect on the potential consequences of such partnerships instead of celebrating every new deal with shangwe na vigelegele? And then there are the government projects. First, there was the Hustler Fund, which was plausible due to the use of M-PESA. Then came the phone assembly initiative—an affordable but basic product. But now, we have the Integrated Healthcare Information Technology System (IHITS). Why is Safaricom building a health information system? Digital health is an entire industry, complete with doctors, hospitals, protocols, businesses, seminars, NGOs, and more. Safaricom seems to know they’re treading murky waters, as they’ve already released a press statement defending their position. But how are we supposed to believe due diligence was done on a company registered only two months ago, for a contract worth over Ksh 100 billion, with politically exposed individuals involved? Meanwhile, youth groups supplying mandazi need to provide audited accounts. I recall the hoops startups had to jump through to join the Safaricom Accelerator—just for AWS credits and a bit of influence. Now, with Safaricom knee-deep in questionable deals, I can’t help but feel relieved that KQ is making a comeback, or we might’ve seen Safaricom bundled into a consortium to revive it. They’d likely spin it as benefiting cross-border payments for our socio-economic prosperity. Integrity is witnessed during moments like these. It’s not something you can fake. There’s a well-documented relationship between corruption and innovation. Corruption stifles innovation. Safaricom is heading down a dangerous path, and if this trajectory continues, no company will be safe.