Vodacom is already making plans for Egypt: Vodafone’s South African subsidiary plans to launch financial services products in Egypt through its Vodapay superapp that it is developing with Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group, its CEO, Shameel Joosub, told Bloomberg yesterday. The company hopes to soon enter Egypt with the EUR 2.34 bn (USD 2.7 bn) acquisition of Vodafone Group’s majority stake in Vodafone Egypt, which Vodacom shareholders approved in January. Vodapay is modeled on Alibaba’s Alipay ⁠— the world’s largest digital wallet ⁠— and provides access to a suite of financial services including online shopping, loans, and mobile payments.

Not so fast? The companies are still waiting for approval from Egyptian regulators, who have been silent on the transaction since the agreement was first announced back in November 2021. Sources at the Financial Regulatory Authority and the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority told us yesterday that no decision has been made on the sale, which is still the subject of a national security review.