Kenyan telco giant Safaricom is being accused of anti-competitive practices
The company is accused of giving its latest investment product an unfair edge.
Safaricom, Kenya’s telecom giant and the dominant force behind mobile money platform M-PESA, is under fire for what some are calling anti-competitive behaviour in the country’s digital investment space.
With M-PESA processing over 90% of Kenya’s mobile money transactions, Safaricom holds a firm grip on how most Kenyans move their money. But now, that control is being questioned after a formal complaint accused the company of giving its latest investment product, Ziidi, an unfair edge.
So what’s the issue? Ziidi is a money market fund (MMF) that lets M-PESA users invest directly from their mobile wallets and earn interest, just like traditional MMFs such as Cytonn, CIC, and Britam. But unlike those competitors, Ziidi users can deposit and withdraw funds without paying any M-PESA transaction fees. That’s where the problem lies. While rival funds charge between KES 10 and KES 60 (around $0.077–$0.46) for similar transactions, Ziidi investors get a free pass.
Oluwaseun Bamisile
Competing Cytonn’s CEO, Edwin Dande, has now petitioned the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) to investigate Safaricom. He claims the arrangement distorts the retail investment market and amounts to abuse of dominance under Sections 21 and 24 of the Competition Act, which prohibit practices that unfairly limit market access or misuse a company’s dominant position.
By zero-rating M-PESA fees for Ziidi but not for its competitors, Safaricom is allegedly applying “dissimilar conditions to equivalent transactions”—a classic antitrust red flag.
Since gaining approval in late 2024, Ziidi has drawn over 1 million users and KES 6 billion ($46 million) in assets. With MMFs accounting for 67.4% of Kenya’s KES 171.2 billion ($1.3 billion) collective investments, cost-saving features like zero M-PESA fees give Ziidi a major edge in a mobile-first, price-sensitive market.
But the fallout goes deeper. Genghis Capital, which managed Safaricom’s earlier product Mali, has accused the telco of quietly sidelining Mali in favour of Ziidi, even migrating users without consent. Meanwhile, Cytonn and others fear losing ground not because their funds underperform, but because platform power is redefining who wins.
If CAK takes action, Safaricom could be forced to either open up zero-rated M-PESA access to all players or start charging Ziidi users. But if the case is dismissed, it may set a precedent where owning the rails gives you the runway to dominate everything built on top.
David Adubiina
