Kenya's biggest telco, Safaricom has laid out plans to make a move into new markets in East Africa.
The company's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Bob Collymore, stated: "In the next two to three years, we will be in four to five countries."
Safaricom will be venturing into telecommunications in other countries with a new product, an online marketplace dubbed 'Masoko'.
Mr Collymore labelled eCommerce "a white space" that they are getting into. Safaricom hopes to leverage its revolutionary payments platform, M-Pesa to give it an edge over competitors.
Their sights are set on moving into Ethiopia more than anywhere else. The nation has a population of 100 Million and recently dethroned Kenya as East Africa's largest economy.
Masoko will be an online marketplace that connects businesses to consumers and businesses to other businesses but it will not hold inventory.
It looks like Safaricom is drawing the best qualities of China's Alibaba and America's Amazon.
The expansion will be funded by Safaricom's profits in Kenya. In the year to March 2017, the company recorded Sh70.6 Billion in profits.
The company's share price hit an all-time-high of Sh27.25 on August 9.
The Safaricom executive noted that the recent sale of 35% of the company by London-listed Vodafone to South Africa-listed Vodacom had freed them to move into other African markets.
Previously, all moves out of Kenya were seen as encroaching on Vodacom's territory.
