👨🏿‍🚀TechCabal Daily – Safaricom’s Turnaround

Internet

Safaricom opens up to a Starlink partnership

Kenya’s telecoms market leader Safaricom, claims it is now open to partnering with Starlink, an about face from the company’s previous position.

“We have had some discussions, and we will continue to have those discussions to the extent that they complement what we are offering,” CEO Peter Ndegwa told Bloomberg.

A partnership between Safaricom and Starlink could benefit Kenyan consumers. The corporation’s extensive network could provide a robust distribution channel that could be key to reducing the cost of Starlink kits, which currently cost KES 45,000 ($350). However, the specific details of such a collaboration – should it proceed – remain undisclosed.

In August, Safaricom wrote to Kenya’s Communications Authority (CA) to impose stricter regulations on independent satellite internet providers like Starlink. While the CA argued that Safaricom had a right to suggest market entry prerequisites, this move was criticised, as some industry experts accused Safaricom of attempting to curtail Starlink’s market entry.

Regardless of whether the partnership proceeds, the existing rivalry between the two ISPs shows that new market entrants benefit consumers with price-sensitive offerings. 

Starlink has also changed how Safaricom prices its fibre packages, obviously to maintain its top position as a fixed internet services provider. 

Last Monday, Safaricom responded by upgrading its fibre speeds up to five times and introducing a 1 Gbps package—a previously unfeasible offering in the local fixed internet market. Starlink countered with a more affordable residential package offering speeds of up to 100 Mbps for KES 4,000 ($31) a month and a cheaper Starlink Mini kit priced at KES 27,000 ($210). 

These developments are a positive step towards making fixed data services more accessible to Kenyans.

Nigeria is marking its independence with a giveaway., The Federal government will give commercial drivers 2,000 compressed natural gas (CNG)-powered tricycles. 

With fuel prices at record highs, CNG vehicles may finally be having a moment. 

Drivers on the ride-hailing platform Bolt have been retrofitting their vehicles with CNG kits discounted by the government. 

CNG, which costs about ₦235 ($0.14) per cubic metre, is about five times cheaper than petrol. With just ₦5,000 ($3) worth of the gas, a car can make a round trip from Lagos to Ibadan (about 262 km), according to our report. The same trip will require about ₦30,000 ($18) worth of petrol.

But will CNG really go mainstream? This high interest in the compressed gas might just be a temporary flight response to the increased cost of fuel. Despite previous spikes in fuel prices, CNG usage has not seen widespread adoption since 2019.

A major hindrance to mass adoption is the cost of the conversion. The kits cost ₦200,000–₦300,000 ($121–$181) in 2019 and have since seen prices increase to ₦750,000–₦2.5 million ($423–$1,512).

The government is currently fully and partially funding conversion for public transportation but there is a limit to its coffers. Limited resources and fuel subsidies were removed in the first place. What will happen when the government reaches its limits? Will commercial drivers scrape from their meagre earnings to buy it? Or will they simply keep increasing the price of transport?

This year, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) recorded the fastest average fixed broadband internet speed worldwide, at 291.85 megabytes per second (Mbps), and Singapore was a close second at 290.86 Mbps. In Nigeria, approximately 28 million Nigerians will wake up today having never used the internet or a mobile device to make calls. Those with the luxury of internet access will enjoy average download speeds of 27.68 Mbps, 132nd on a ranking for Worldwide Broadband Speed. 

Bosun Tijani, the minister of communications, innovation, and digital economy, stays up at night thinking about how to bring high-speed internet to Nigeria’s 774 local government areas. He’s working on delivering 90,000km fibre optic cables nationwide, starting from the first quarter of 2025. 

The plan requires $2 billion, which the minister says he will raise from seven development finance institutions and local investors. He has also secured the president’s approval for a special-purpose vehicle that will be responsible for the actual building and management of the fibre. 

But it’s far from a done deal. The immediate challenge will be rumblings about an imminent cabinet reshuffle that may see him out of office before he executes on his big goals. 

If he survives a reshuffle and his ministry remains intact, Tijani will need his DFI friends to wire the money needed so he can hit the ground running. 

The minister has less than three years to achieve 90,000km of fibre – a feat never seen before in Nigeria. The industry is optimistic about the plan. Will that optimism be enough?

Read about Bosun Tijani’s plan to bridge Nigeria’s digital divide.

Every political office-holder cares about legacy. For Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, it is training and placing 3 million technical talents by 2027. It is the biggest government-led technical talent training program in Nigeria’s history and the minister describes it as the world’s largest tech accelerator. 

It is unsurprising given Tijani’s history of working with tech talent at CCHub, the tech accelerator that midwifed many early Nigerian startups. Even before creating the ministry’s strategy document, one of his close aides said the minister was clear about creating a pipeline for tech talent. 

And for President Bola Tinubu, the 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT) programme is key to fulfilling his campaign promise of creating one million tech jobs. Being an industry with a low barrier to entry, technology is considered the best shot at addressing Nigeria’s unemployment rate.

When Tijani first shared the plan in October 2023, the reactions were polarising. Critics say that considering the rigour required, three months isn’t sufficient to train people in digital skills and make them job-ready. Existing infrastructure problems, including low internet penetration and digital literacy, are also talking points.

Yet the ministry believes 3MTT has scored significant wins. It claims it created over 3,500 jobs for participants in its inaugural cohort. It aims to train 270,000 people in the second cohort.

How has 3MTT fared and how close is it to reach its ambitious target? These are the critical questions we will answer in our next article in our comprehensive review of the minister’s first year.

In case you missed our previous articles, you can read them here.

CRYPTO TRACKER

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Source:

Coin Name	Current Value	Day	Month
Bitcoin	$64,450	– 1.98%	+ 8.66%
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* Data as of 06:02 AM WAT, September 30, 2024.