Safaricom has announced a new partnership with media houses in Kenya. The new deal will see newspapers made available to all smartphone customers in the country at KES 20 per issue. The price will be deducted from the customer’s airtime enabling them to buy newspapers daily and read them on the go with each purchased issue available for 7 days.

The KES 20 price per newspaper includes data usage meaning a customer’s data bundle will not be consumed when reading through each paper. No registration or signup will be necessary neither will customers be requested to download and install any application.

The service can be accessed by visiting Safaricom.com and selecting the “Discover” option followed by “Newspapers”, upon which a customer will see newspapers available for purchase. Customers will need to have their data on when accessing the portal as each purchase is linked to their mobile phone number for ease of access.

In addition to the portal, customers can also dial *550# to purchase the newspapers. Purchased publications will appear under “My Newspaper” tab for 7 days after purchase.

Newspapers currently available from the Standard Group include The Standard, Saturday Standard, Sunday Standard and The Nairobian. Nation Media Group will have Daily Nation, Saturday Nation, Sunday Nation and The Business Daily.

“We are pleased to be part of this initiative, which is a demonstration of our commitment to fusing journalistic creativity with digital innovation in a collaborative venture that we hope will bring value to our esteemed readers and give customers easy access to our newspapers during the pandemic period,” said Orlando Lyomu, CEO, The Standard Group.

“Nation Media Group remains at the forefront of innovation and continues to explore different solutions to keep its readers informed and up to date as news breaks. Our partnership with Safaricom to provide our award-winning publications at very affordable rates to customers wherever they demonstrate this commitment,” said Stephen Gitagama, CEO, Nation Media Group.

“The world is quickly evolving to be digitally-led and we see our customers increasingly seeking ways in which they can achieve their goals by tapping into the convenience of their smartphone. We are glad to partner with media houses to digitise the newspaper channel and make them available on the mobile phone,” said Peter Ndegwa, CEO, Safaricom.

The initiative is part of Safaricom’s contribution in the fight against COVID-19 by empowering customers to conveniently access the newspapers even as they limit their movement. It is also a further commitment in the company’s goal of enabling more businesses harness the power of the internet to meet the needs of their customers.