Airtel Kenya has completed its split into two separate companies after Airtel Money was transferred to a new entity called Airtel Money Kenya Limited (AMKL).
This move follows an announcement made by the Central Bank of Kenya on Tuesday. Airtel Kenya now operates its telecommunications and mobile money businesses as separate entities.
“CBK welcomes this milestone. The completion of this restructuring enables AMKL to ring-fence its operations and focus exclusively on its mobile money business. Significantly, this sets the foundation for AMKL to enhance governance over its mobile money business, strengthen its operations, and offer better services to its customers,” the CBK said.
Airtel Kenya is currently the second largest telecommunications company after Safaricom. The firm has approximately 16.9 million registered mobile subscribers. Telkom Kenya comes third with 3.4 million subscribers.
Airtel Money is also the second largest mobile money company with deposits of KES 1.5 billion compared to KES 1.3 trillion deposits in Safaricom.
The AMKL has been licensed by the Central Bank of Kenya as a Payment Service Provider (PSP) under the National Payment System Act of 2011.
Airtel Money Kenya Limited (AMKL) and Airtel Network Kenya Limited (ANKL) are now run as subsidiaries of Airtel Africa, a company that is headquartered in Dubai, United Arabs Emirates.
The CBK introduced paybill interoperability that allows customers to pay merchants from any mobile network. This initiative was intended to promote healthy competition in the mobile money sector.