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Safaricom began life in 1993 as a small department within Telkom Kenya, then the state monopoly telecoms operator, running an analogue ETACS network before upgrading to GSM technology in 1996.

It was formally incorporated as a private limited company in April 1997, as a fully owned subsidiary of Telkom Kenya.

The pivotal outside investment came in May 2000, when Vodafone Group of the United Kingdom acquired a 40 percent stake and took over management of the company.

Michael Joseph became founding CEO that July and led Safaricom’s transformation from a company with about 20,000 subscribers into a national telecoms leader.

Along the way, a controversial minority shareholder called Mobitelea Ventures held an indirect stake through Vodafone’s holding, a relationship that drew parliamentary scrutiny in Kenya before Vodafone bought out the remaining interest by 2009.

The defining product launch came in 2007: M-Pesa, a mobile money transfer service built on simple SMS and USSD technology rather than smartphones, developed in partnership with Vodafone after a 2005 pilot program aimed at helping microfinance customers manage loan repayments.

M-Pesa went on to become the world’s most successful mobile money platform and transformed financial access across Kenya, eventually driving financial inclusion to more than 84 percent of the adult population.

Safaricom listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange on June 9, 2008, through a public offering of 25 percent of its shares, the government’s stake in an already established company rather than a from scratch flotation.

Growth continued through the 2010s and 2020s, including a push into Ethiopia through a subsidiary, Safaricom Telecommunications Ethiopia, which deployed network infrastructure starting in 2022 as part of that country’s telecoms liberalization.

By July 2025, the company had crossed 50 million customers on its Kenyan network.

Core Business Lines and Revenue Streams

Safaricom has grown far beyond a traditional phone company into what it now describes as a technology company. Its main lines include:

• Mobile voice, SMS, and data: nationwide 2G, 3G, 4G, and expanding 5G networks, still the traditional core of the business, though mobile data now generates more service revenue than voice.
• M-Pesa and fintech: the group’s single largest and fastest growing unit, covering peer to peer transfers, bill payments, Lipa na M-Pesa merchant payments, the Fuliza overdraft product, M-Shwari and Mali savings and lending, and Ziidi, a money market fund. M-Pesa alone generated roughly Ksh 140 billion in the 2024 financial year and is on course to generate close to half of the group’s profits.
• Fixed data and fiber: home and enterprise broadband, an area where Safaricom leads with over a million fixed internet subscriptions, ahead of rivals like Jamii Telecommunications and Wananchi Group.
• Enterprise and cloud services: connectivity, cloud, and digital solutions for large businesses and government clients.
• Digital commerce and agriculture: platforms like Masoko (e-commerce) and DigiFarm, aimed at connecting farmers to markets, inputs, and financing.
• Safaricom Ethiopia: a growth bet in East Africa’s second most populous country, still loss making but narrowing its losses as the business scales.

For the financial year ended March 2026, the group reported revenue of Ksh 421 billion, up about 9 percent year on year, and earnings of Ksh 95.6 billion, up 37 percent, with strong double digit growth in Kenya alongside reduced losses in Ethiopia.

Competitive Position in the Industry

Safaricom is, by a very wide margin, Kenya’s dominant telecoms operator, and remains the largest company in East Africa by market capitalization.

According to the Communications Authority of Kenya’s most recent quarterly data, Safaricom held about 69.8 percent of mobile subscriptions, 62.7 percent of mobile broadband subscriptions, and 88.8 percent of mobile money subscriptions as of mid 2026, figures that have actually strengthened in mobile subscriptions even as its mobile money share has edged down slightly from a peak near 91 percent as Airtel Money makes gradual inroads.

Its nearest competitor, Airtel Kenya, has grown steadily over the past two years, pushing past 30 percent of mobile subscriptions and into the low double digits of the mobile money market, while Telkom Kenya has continued to shrink toward irrelevance, holding under 1 percent of most segments.

In fixed broadband, Safaricom leads but faces more genuine fragmentation, with competitors like Jamii Telecommunications, Wananchi Group, and the fast growing satellite provider Starlink chipping away at share.

What sets Safaricom apart from nearly every other company in this series is the sheer scale of its dominance: no bank in Kenya controls anywhere close to 60 to 90 percent of its market the way Safaricom does across mobile subscriptions and mobile money.

That dominance has also drawn regulatory attention, including a 2026 competition complaint from Airtel over Safaricom’s promotional pricing, which the Competition Authority of Kenya dismissed as compliant with the rules.

Ownership Structure

Safaricom’s ownership has historically been split three ways: the Government of Kenya, Vodafone (later restructured through Vodacom), and free floating public shareholders on the NSE, roughly 35, 40, and 25 percent respectively in the long standing structure.

That structure is now the subject of an active, high profile legal fight. In December 2025, the Kenyan government agreed to sell an additional 15 percent stake in Safaricom to Vodacom Group of South Africa, alongside a related purchase by Vodacom of a further 5 percent from Vodafone, in a transaction valued at roughly $2.1 billion.

The government’s 15 percent stake alone was sold for about Ksh 204.3 billion (roughly $1.6 billion), part of President William Ruto’s broader push to raise money through state asset sales amid heavy debt repayment pressure.

The deal, once completed, would lift Vodacom’s effective stake in Safaricom to about 55 percent, giving it majority control, while cutting the Kenyan government’s direct holding to roughly 20 percent.

The transaction closed on June 30, 2026, after Kenya’s Court of Appeal lifted an earlier conservatory order.

But on September 15, 2026, a three judge High Court bench declared the sale unconstitutional and void, ruling that the government failed to meet public participation requirements under Kenya’s public finance laws and that the deal effectively amounted to a takeover of a strategically important national company.

The court ordered the 15 percent stake returned to the government.

Both Vodacom and the National Treasury immediately said they would appeal to the Court of Appeal and seek a stay of the ruling, so as of this writing, the ownership of that 15 percent stake, and by extension whether Vodacom holds a controlling 55 percent or a smaller stake in Safaricom, remains legally unresolved.

Notably, Safaricom’s own share price actually rose after the ruling, suggesting investors were not unsettled by the uncertainty, or saw the reversion to government ownership as a neutral to positive outcome.

Given how fluid this situation is, treat any specific ownership percentage you read, including the ones in this post, as subject to change, and check recent news before citing a definitive shareholder breakdown.

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Why It’s Listed on the NSE Specifically

Safaricom’s NSE listing reflects both its Kenyan origins and a deliberate government policy choice:

• A Kenyan company since incorporation: Safaricom was built from a department of the state owned Telkom Kenya and incorporated locally, making it a Kenyan company from day one, regardless of Vodafone’s later investment.
• A privatization vehicle for the government: the 2008 listing offered 25 percent of an already profitable, already dominant company to the Kenyan public, a structure designed to let ordinary citizens and local institutions share in the value of a national asset rather than leaving it entirely in state and foreign hands.
• Local incorporation and regulation: Safaricom is licensed by the Communications Authority of Kenya and incorporated domestically, so the NSE is its natural home for public capital and disclosure.
• A strategically important national company: the very language used in the 2026 court ruling, describing Safaricom as touching the daily lives of over 50 million Kenyans, underscores why its listing and ownership structure remain matters of intense public and political interest, not just routine corporate governance.
• The single most important stock on the exchange: Safaricom is consistently the most heavily traded and most heavily weighted stock on the NSE, meaning its listing is central to the exchange’s own relevance and liquidity, not just to the company itself.

Current Stock Price

As of September 29, 2026, SCOM was trading around Sh35.95 on the Nairobi Securities Exchange, down about 1.2 percent on the day, giving the company a market capitalization of roughly Sh1.21 trillion, still comfortably the largest listed company in East Africa.

The stock has gained about 29 percent since the start of 2026, and its 52 week range has run from about Sh26.00 to Sh39.25.

Safaricom pays dividends semi-annually, with a recent per share dividend of Sh0.85 carrying an ex-dividend date in February 2026.

Given the ongoing legal battle over the government’s stake sale, the share price could move on further court or appeal developments, so treat this figure as a snapshot rather than today’s price.

Check the live quote through the NSE website, your broker’s trading platform, or a data source such as African Markets or myStocks before making any decision.

How to Buy Safaricom Shares

Buying SCOM shares, Kenya’s most heavily traded stock, follows the standard process used across the Kenyan market:

1. Open a CDS account. A Central Depository System (CDS) account holds your shares electronically. You can open one through the Central Depository and Settlement Corporation (CDSC), though most investors do this through a licensed stockbroker as part of onboarding.
2. Choose a licensed stockbroker. You’ll need an NSE licensed brokerage, such as Faida Investment Bank, AIB-AXYS Africa, Genghis Capital, or SBG Securities, to place trades. Most offer mobile or online trading platforms.
3. Fund your trading account. Deposit money into the account linked to your broker, typically through bank transfer or mobile money (including, fittingly, M-Pesa itself), depending on what the brokerage supports.
4. Place your buy order. Specify the ticker (SCOM), the number of shares, and your price, either a market order at the prevailing price or a limit order at a price you set. Given Safaricom’s trading volume, orders here tend to fill quickly compared with thinner stocks on the exchange.
5. Diaspora and foreign investor options. Kenyans abroad and foreign investors can buy SCOM shares too. Many Kenyan brokerages support remote account opening with certified identification, and some platforms allow USD settlement, letting diaspora investors trade without being physically present in Kenya.
6. Track your holding. Once the trade settles, usually within a few business days, the shares reflect in your CDS account. You can follow price movement, dividend announcements, and corporate actions through your broker’s platform, the NSE website, or financial data sites carrying live NSE quotes. Given the active court case over the government’s Vodacom stake sale, it is worth following the news closely if you hold or plan to buy this particular stock.

As with any equity investment, share prices can go down as well as up, and this isn’t financial advice. It’s worth doing your own research, or speaking with a licensed financial advisor, before buying.