Safaricom has issued serious changes they will be making in 2021.
Most industries have been affected negatively during this pandemic, as unexpected as it was different companies were required to create strategies and ways to cushion Kenyans during this hard times. One of the companies that was greatly is Safaricom who released their half-year report and revealed that their profit declined for the first time in almost a decade.
The drop was expected as CBK had issues a zero-rating order in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The measures that were taken to cushion Kenyans from led to the telcos losing billions on a monthly basis. By July, Safaricom was projecting to lose over 19 billion by the end of 2020.
CBK ends waiver.
The Central Bank of Kenya decided to not extend the waiver order as it comes to an expiration date of 31st December 2020. Due to Safaricom’s losses they’ve had to make some changes for next year.
M-PESA changes.
If you’re one of the people who has been sending money in hundreds because the transactions are free, that will change. They hinted that this will change as they await CBK’s decision.
However even as Safaricom find a way to implement the new changes they may be forced to decrease their rates to some an extent as people have been complaining about their transaction fees. So far rumour has it that CBK and Safaricom will probably negotiate and agree for Safaricom to lower their transaction fees then CBK will scrap off the zero-rating order.
The reality is that many businesses will be looking for ways to recover the millions and billions they’ve lost this year. Safaricom hopes to recover their billions after half a year if they reach a settlement.
In case you hadn’t noticed Safaricom Home Fibre had increased their speeds as a way of facilitating people who were working from home. There’s a slim chance that the packages may be changed but this is not a definite plan and we surely hope that the already high rates will remain the same, furthermore Safaricom has been making healthy profits from Internet.
None of this is confirmed yet, so you might want to take this with a pinch of salt.