Kenya’s competition regulator steps back from Vodacom-Safaricom merger review
On today's Techpoint Digest, we discuss CAK stepping back from the Vodacom-Safaricom review, Paga’s partnership with PayPal in Nigeria, and South African telcos' lawsuit against Home Affairs over iID fees.
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မင်္ဂလာပါ,<br />
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Victoria from Techpoint here,<br />
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Here’s what I’ve got for you today:<br />
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CAK steps back from Vodacom-Safaricom merger review<br />
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Paga brings PayPal payments to Nigeria<br />
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SA telcos sue Home Affairs over 6,500% ID fee hike<br />
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CAK steps back from Vodacom-Safaricom merger review<br />
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Source: RegTech Africa<br />
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The Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) has stepped back from formally reviewing Vodacom Group’s planned purchase of a bigger slice of Safaricom, leaving the heavy lifting to regional competition regulators instead. This comes as Vodacom pushes to boost its stake in Kenya’s largest telco from 35% to 55% through a multi-billion-shilling deal.<br />
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Under the deal, Vodacom would buy a 15% stake from the Government of Kenya and another 5% from Vodafone itself, in a transaction worth around KSh 272 billion (about $1.6B+s). If completed, it would make Vodacom the controlling shareholder of Safaricom, while the Kenyan state would retain a 20% share and the public about 25%.<br />
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Instead of triggering a full local merger review, which would normally involve detailed scrutiny and fees, CAK has said the transaction should be assessed by the East African Community Competition Authority (EACCA) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Competition and Consumer Commission (CCCC) because the companies involved operate in multiple countries and meet regional thresholds.<br />
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CAK will still share its views on how the deal might affect competition and consumer welfare in Kenya, but it won’t lead the investigation. That’s a notable shift: it signals that cross-border deals are increasingly being handled at the regional level, a change meant to reduce duplicate reviews and cut compliance costs for businesses.<br />
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The regional review is also one of the first major tests of the EAC Competition Act, which only became operational in late 2025. With Safaricom being such a key part of Kenya’s digital economy, especially through mobile money platform M-Pesa, how regulators bala...
