Kenyan Government Plans Sale of Safaricom Stake to Raise $1.16 Billion

Kenya's government is planning to sell a significant portion of its approximately 35% stake in Safaricom to raise about KES 149 billion (around $1.16 billion) as part of a broader privatization drive targeting state-owned enterprises in the 2025/26 financial year. Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi indicated that this sale could be a major revenue source to help finance the national budget without increasing taxes. Safaricom, widely recognized for its dominant mobile money platform M-PESA, remains a highly profitable company despite challenges such as the Ethiopian operation's difficulties. The government previously sold a 25% stake in Safaricom through an IPO in 2008, which was heavily oversubscribed and significantly boosted local market activity. While the exact method of the upcoming sale is undecided, possibilities include a secondary IPO or block sales to high net worth investors. Discussions about potentially splitting M-PESA from Safaricom to encourage competition in the telco and fintech sectors continue but no formal decisions have been made.