The Kenyan subsidiary of Bharti Airtel Limited may list on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) by March 2024 so as to comply with a local government directive seeking foreign tech companies cede at least 30 % of their shareholding to local investors.
“There are a number of options; we can identify a local shareholder we can also list at the Nairobi Securities Exchange, NSE,” Airtel Africa Group Chief Executive Segun Ogunsanya said on March 18.
Adding, “We keep discussing with the regulator as to which one is the best route to ensure there is local participation in the business. We are very committed to doing this and commit to having it done by the deadline.”
Understandingly, the move is anchored on Kenya’s National Information and Technology Policy guidelines 2020 which partially spells out that foreign companies seeking to offer ICT-related services must have a 30 % local ownership threshold by March 2024.
By September 2022 Airtel Kenya had 17.1 out of the 50.2 million registered subscribers, according to the Communication Authority of Kenya (CA), or ownership of 26.3% market share, making it the second biggest telco in East Africa’s biggest economy.
Safaricom PLC, the only telco trading on the NSE, having listed on June 9 2008 leads with 50.2 million subscribers or 66 % of the market and operates M-PESA Africa’s leading mobile money service with more than 604,000 active agents operating across the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, and Tanzania.
