The long brewing rivalry between the two mobile market industry leaders Airtel and Safaricom was taken a notch higher, when Airtel refused settlement plan with Safaricom over money transfer charges and this has now paved way for a full hearing.
According to the Standard Weekend Business, Airtel is fighting what it calls anti-competitive tendencies from market leader Safaricom. Since the inception of mobile money transfer, MPesa has maintained an expensive exchange transfer charge with Airtel Money.
“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.
The matter is being handled by the Competitions Authority of Kenya (CAK).
Safaricom is said to be controlling over 80 percent of mobile money transfer market with a total of over 24 million users in Kenya according to Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK).