Word: safaricom
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...only when a Mega Millions lottery jackpot creeps past the $100 million range. In the aftermath of the country's violent political spasm, the mania was perceived as a sure bet on prosperity: the initial public offering of East Africa's most profitable company, the mobile phone service provider Safaricom...
There is real reason for excitement. Much to the surprise of technology analysts, Africa is the fastest-growing mobile phone market on the planet and Safaricom has profited handsomely by catering to customers who don't have a lot to spend. In 2007, the company's pre-tax profit was $370 million, making it what was believed to be the most successful company in the continent outside South Africa. The more stunning figure is its subscriber base - which grew from less than 20,000 in 2000 to about 10 million today, upending the conventional wisdom that sub-Saharan Africans, especially...
...shillings (just over $150). And on the first day of the IPO, thousands of people lined up in downtown Nairobi to snap up shares. It was perhaps most emblematic that one Kenyan newspaper the Daily Nation, referred to potential investors as "punters," as if by buying Safaricom shares they were betting on a racehorse, or a particularly promising poker hand. "There has been a lot of education, people are now aware of what it means to own shares," said Rina Karina, a corporate finance and research analyst at Faida Investments, which helped orchestrate the IPO. "But even there, the reason...
...very least, Kenyans know what they are betting on. Thanks to a proliferation of cheap handsets and pay-as-you-go services, it seems that practically every Kenyan has a mobile phone, and most who do are Safaricom customers. The company has made its buck by thinking small, allowing Kenyans to buy airtime in increments as little as 20 Kenyan shillings - about $0.30. It has found success by focusing on ways that even the simplest mobile phones can change people's lives. Airtime credit can be traded as currency and Safaricom also has a feature, called M-Pesa ("pesa...