Safaricom is looking for a new head for its planned mobile financial services in Ethiopia signalling the telco remains bullish on its M-Pesa rollout plans in the country despite pending regulatory approvals.
Ethiopia said it would clear the way for Safaricom to introduce its popular M-Pesa in the market of 110 million people in 2021 after deciding to include the mobile phone-based financial services in the telco’s licence offered earlier in May that year.
Ethiopian authorities told the Business Daily then that the Safaricom licence would be upgraded to include mobile financial service when it completes bidding for its second telecoms operator permit.
Safaricom #ticker:SCOM is looking for a new head for its planned mobile financial services in Ethiopia signalling the telco remains bullish on its M-Pesa rollout plans in the country despite pending regulatory approvals.
The Safaricom consortium, which also includes British development finance agency CDC Group and Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation, won the licence with a bid of $850 million (Sh97.9 billion) and aims to start commercial operations in Ethiopia this year.
“We are pleased to announce the following vacancy for the head of department M-Pesa (mobile money) commercial within digital financial services function in Ethiopia,” said Safaricom in a notice.
“The holder of the role will oversee the M-Pesa commercial team as well as collaborate closely with all divisions and business units within the organisation to ensure that M-Pesa products and services meet all the set KPIs (key performance indicators) as well as delight our customers.”
Safaricom said the ideal candidate for the job must have experience in managing a broad portfolio of mobile banking or money products/solutions.
Ethiopia said it would clear the way for Safaricom to introduce its popular M-Pesa in the market of 110 million people in 2021 after deciding to include the mobile phone-based financial services in the telco’s licence offered earlier in May that year.
Ethiopian authorities told the Business Daily then that the Safaricom licence would be upgraded to include mobile financial service when it completes bidding for its second telecoms operator permit.
This marked a willingness to depart from the existing laws that only allowed locally owned non-financial institutions to offer mobile money services.
“The second licence process, which includes mobile money services will not disadvantage the previous winner (Safaricom),” the director-general of Ethiopian Communications Authority told the Business Daily then.
“What will be permitted for the second licensee will be permitted for the first licensee. One thing we may be sure of is that the first and second licensee will have the chance to start providing mobile financial services at the same time.”
