Sh30bn airtime lending raises Safaricom profile in credit market

Mobile phone subscribers borrowed up to Sh30 billion worth of airtime or nearly a third of the total airtime Safaricom sold last year, underlining how critical telecoms operators have become in the credit market.

The credit, extended to millions of customers through Safaricom’s emergency top-up facility, Okoa Jahazi, earned the telecoms company Sh3.1 billion in revenues last year.