Kenya’s largest operator Safaricom is eyeing expansion across Africa, with the view of establishing its e-commerce and mobile payments solutions in untapped markets of the region.

In an interview with Financial Times (FT), Safaricom’s CEO Bob Collymore (pictured) said he wanted to take the company’s planned e-commerce platform, dubbed Masoko, “into the white space… space that no one is in at the moment”.

Collymore said the company would initially target neighbouring countries in East Africa, but was also considering expanding into West Africa. However, he suggested the plans might not extend to growing its presence as a mobile operator, as countries would consider this “as a bit more of a threat”.

The CEO seemingly has designs on establishing an operation similar to China’s Alibaba, which combines e-commerce and mobile payments. He plans to create a marketplace connecting businesses to consumers and other businesses.

Safaricom’s planned expansion will be funded by its mobile business in Kenya, which recorded profit of $685 million in the year to end-March 2017, FT reported. Sales grew 32 per cent year-on-year, largely driven by its m-Pesa mobile money service.

Shackles are off
Collymore, who was in May handed a two year extension to his contract as CEO, added the company’s long-term goals have been aided by the completion of Vodacom’s 35 per cent stake acquisition of the Kenyan operator from parent company Vodafone Group.

“This really unshackled us,” said Collymore, stating that prior to this anything outside of Kenya was “Vodacom’s territory”, as far as Vodafone was concerned.

Safaricom plans to rollout Masoko in Kenya later this year, with the aim

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