South Africa Does It Better / Does SA Have Two Heads?
Let us compare with what has been going on in South Africa. This week, the South African Competition Commission (the
Commission) produced
a report on competition in the taxi industry. Their report showed that ride-hailing apps were consistently cheaper than metered taxis. This was primarily because, among other things, the apps were not subject to pricing regulations and the price-setting mechanism that the Minister of Transport used to determine the fare structure for metered taxis.
Did they decide to ban ride-hailing apps? Or introduce strict regulation on them? Surprisingly, no. They recommended that, among other things, the
pricing regulations and price-setting mechanism be removed in order to level the playing field, catalyse competition, and improve consumer welfare.
#GodWhen?
Hooray for Huawei
Safaricom, owner’s of MPesa and a big player in East Africa’s telecoms space, will consider contracting Huawei to engineer its 5G network this year. The United States government has expressed concerns over China’s lead in the development of 5G technology. However Michael Joseph, Safaricom’s CEO, doesn’t think Africa has to be caught up in the ongoing wahala. “
We will use Huawei in 5G. What will we do in terms of the American statements about not using Huawei? We don’t have that situation in Africa”.
The Chinese company previously built Safaricom’s 2G, 3G and 4G networks. MPesa, Safaricom’s flagship product, is also based on Huawei’s mobile money platform.