Airtel Kenya announced the separation of its mobile money unit from its core network operations as the operator complies with regulations set by the central bank, ending a process three years in the making.
In a statement, Airtel Kenya detailed it separated Airtel Money from Airtel Networks and transferred the mobile money unit to Airtel Money, which will take over and continue the provision of the service.
Customers continuing to use the service will automatically be seen as accepting of the change, and the customer data sharing between Airtel Money and Airtel Networks.
In a separate statement, the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) said the separation enables Airtel Networks to “ring-fence its operations and focus exclusively on its mobile money business”.
But more significantly it enables more independence for the mobile money unit to act more independently to strengthen operations and grow its customer base, noted the CBK.
The CBK has engaged all payment services providers to separate their financial units from other business lines. It argued this protects CBK-regulated activities from “shocks” stemming from other business activities, protecting customer interests.
