Disruption & entry — mandatory cashlessness — and alleged collective dominance Perhaps they don’t realise it themselves, but the journalists at ITWeb Africa have written antitrust/competition law strories in three of their recent reports, covering the rapidly growing and lucrative tech world in Africa: their stories range (in antitrust terms) from collective dominance in Africa’s […]
Today, the East African reported on a stunning admission by the Chief Executive Officer of Kenyan mobile telco heavyweight Safaricom (itself no stranger to AAT telco competition reporting and proprietor of the massive M-Pesa mobile money network across East Africa). In the article, fittingly entitled “Safaricom rules out price war in Ethiopian market“, the business […]
The above topics were among those discussed at this year’s #AfricaFinanceForum, hosted by the Corporate Council on Africa. The annual event featured high-level speakers, such as Rhoda Weeks-Brown, IMF General Counsel, who pointed to increased expected economic growth rates of 3.5% in 2019 (half a point higher than in 2018) and a faster per-capita income rise […]
HOW CAN COMPETITION LAW ENFORCEMENT IN THE DIGITAL ECONOMY HELP IN THE FIGHT AGAINST POVERTY? By DWA co-founder and visiting AAT author, Amine Mansour* (re-published courtesy of Developing World Antitrust’s editors) When talking about competition law and poverty alleviation, we may intuitively think about markets involving essential needs. The rise of new sectors may however prompt competition authorities […]
CAK settles with Safaricom, requires non-exclusivity of outlets and forces Central Bank oversight of payment operator The mobile payments sphere, particularly growing in African countries as we reported previously, is abuzz with news that a competition regulator has now expressly subjected Safaricom (a prominent Kenyan operator) to oversight by the country’s Central Banking authority. It […]
Mobile payment wars heating up in Kenya Airtel Networks Kenya Limited (“Airtel”) has joined forces with Kenya-based Equity Bank to launch a similar mobile banking product, M-KESHO in July 2014 to the established product provided by Safaricom Limited (“Safaricom”). Safaricom offers a product named “M-Pesa” to its customers in Kenya and Tanzania. M-Pesa is a […]
Philips’ CEO Frans van Houten recognizes untapped potential, invests in Africa In February, AAT launched its multi-part series on innovation & antitrust as a thematic collection focusing on the concept of innovation markets and how competition and IP laws are able to address the, by definition, novel issues that arise. Recently, and timely so, Philips […]
Deals and accusations rock ZA’s Vodacom The South African mobile operator landscape can be described as a microcosmic reflection of the larger African experience: Mobile technology is exponentially more developed than what an outside observer would otherwise predict, based on distinct economic predictors. One of the key reasons for this highly-developed sub-Saharan mobile world is […]
First-ever FT African Investment Summit to be held in London In October, the Financial Times will be hosting a timely “FT-Live” London symposium on investment in Africa. The Oct. 6th FT Africa Summit (agenda) is expected to draw a global audience from various industry sectors, limited to 150 attendees. Whether or not the conference will […]
More countries may enter the mix of players – but at the platform level, competition may have stagnated As we reported last month, the mobile payments sector is going gangbusters on the African continent. Kenya is ahead of the game, but other countries are closing in. Kenya itself is considered by many to be at […]
African Antitrust & Competition Law 