Vodacom completes 55% Safaricom stake acquisition
Kenya has finalised the sale of a Safaricom stake to Vodacom, with the South African operator now holding 55 percent majority control of East Africa's most-watched telco and fintech platform. The ownership shift reshapes the governance and strategic direction of Safaricom and its M-Pesa subsidiary. Airtel Kenya has simultaneously appointed a new managing director as competition with the restructured Safaricom intensifies.
Safaricom: Vodacom's majority now has to earn it
The $2.1 billion is paid. The court challenge is behind them. Vodacom now controls Safaricom, East Africa's biggest telco and the company behind M-Pesa, the mobile-money network that tens of millions of Kenyans use for almost everything financial.
But majority ownership isn't the same as strategic control. Safaricom stays listed in Nairobi, the Kenyan government keeps 20% and a board seat, and the questions that three High Court judges raised about who really governs a network this embedded in daily life haven't been answered — just outrun.
Vodacom's real test is whether it can expand Safaricom's Ethiopia bet and deepen M-Pesa's regional reach without the governance looking like a Johannesburg boardroom calling the shots on Nairobi's financial plumbing. That's not a legal question anymore. It's a trust question — and trust is slower to close than a deal.
2 sources
- 👨🏿🚀TechCabal Daily – Safaricom ports to South Africa · techcabal.com · T1
- Kenya finalises Safaricom stake sale as Vodacom takes 55% control · techpoint.africa · T1