Kenyan Telecoms Giant, Safaricom, has unveiled a jet-speed 5G broadband technology to its local audience, bringing the 5G tech presence to a stronger momentum in Africa. "During Covid we have seen alot of customers wanting to work from home, so going forward we have to enable working from home or working from anywhere, in any space," said Peter Ndegwa , CEO, Safaricom.
The Kenyan firm acknowledged that its 4G launch, in 2015, tripled its revenue in 2020. It is also considering expansion into other countries.
"We are looking at expanding Mpesa beyond Kenya, we have already expressed interest to enter Ethiopia and we are going through that process. Hopefully if we get in there, we will continue to accelerate growth. More globally, we are looking at partnering with others so that Mpesa becomes the partner of choice for others including Visa and PayPal. We've signed many partnerships across the world," added Peter Ndegwa. Among the 50 million mobile network subscriptions in Kenya, there are just over 10 million smartphone connections.
Although a 5G roll-out by Safaricom is a major step towards the development of the continent's network, its Kenya customers should also be willing to pay more for internet data and connectivity further.