Safaricom Extends Its Kenyan Run With Fresh 25-Year Licence Approval
The new approval from Kenya’s telecom regulator lifts Safaricom’s licence costs and gives the operator a longer runway for network investment.
A new long-term operating permit from Kenya’s telecom regulator pushed Safaricom Plc higher into licence spending during the year ended March 2026, with related costs reaching Sh16.38 billion.
The increase came as the Communications Authority of Kenya approved a 25-year authorisation for the mobile operator under the country’s Unified Licensing Framework. The company had booked Sh14.66 billion in licence expenses a year earlier.
The approval gives Safaricom regulatory cover deep into the next two decades and closes a period in which Kenya’s largest telecom operator had been running on a temporary extension. Industry negotiations around spectrum access, pricing structures and outage penalties had delayed the transition to a longer-term arrangement.
Chairman Adil Khawaja said the approval strengthens the company’s planning position as it continues investing across network infrastructure and digital services.
“This provides long-term certainty and strengthens our ability to invest with confidence,” he said.
The regulator has traditionally issued telecom licences on 10-year cycles. Safaricom’s latest approval therefore introduces a different timetable into the market at a moment when Kenya is reconsidering how spectrum resources are assigned and priced.
The review process had led regulators to issue interim permits to both Safaricom and Airtel Kenya in late 2024. Those temporary approvals were meant to hold operations in place while discussions continued over licence terms and frequency allocation.
Safaricom earlier paid Sh1.63 billion for a two-year extension plus additional administrative charges. Airtel Kenya secured its own extension to January 2027 after paying Sh494.2 million and related fees.
The difference in costs reflects broader disparities in spectrum holdings and subscriber scale between the operators. Safaricom continues to dominate Kenya’s telecom market through its mobile network footprint, data traffic volumes and mobile money business.
The company did not state how much it paid specifically for the fresh 25-year approval. It also remains uncertain whether Airtel Kenya will receive a licence covering a similar period under the same framework.
For Safaricom, the new term removes a recurring regulatory issue that had lingered over the company’s long-range capital planning. The approval arrives as telecom operators across East Africa increase spending on data infrastructure, enterprise connectivity and next-generation network capacity.
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