{"id":629012,"date":"2026-02-12T17:17:34","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T15:17:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=629012"},"modified":"2026-02-13T13:58:56","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T11:58:56","slug":"bill-gates-former-science-advisor-tried-to-get-jeffrey-epstein-interested-in-vodacom-moneyspinner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/629012-bill-gates-former-science-advisor-tried-to-get-jeffrey-epstein-interested-in-vodacom-moneyspinner.html","title":{"rendered":"Vodacom moneyspinner mentioned in the Epstein Files"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Boris Nikolic, former science advisor to Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates, tried to get Jeffrey Epstein interested in M-Pesa, Vodacom\u2019s successful mobile money business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Epstein Files reveal that, in an email dated 6 January 2010, Nikolic tried to draw Epstein\u2019s attention to M-Pesa as a potential business opportunity, stating that he found the story fascinating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are now over 6 million users in Kenya, and it is getting to India, South Africa, etc.,\u201d said Nikolic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He told Epstein to keep in mind that applications like M-Pesa are written with the \u201cbottom of the pyramid\u201d in mind, but that there was also a much greater opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you are interested in a meeting, I know Nick Hughes, the guy that invented and runs M-Pesa, very well. He is now having some other interesting ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 12 April 2010, Nikolic sent Epstein a link to a BBC article titled, M-Pesa: Kenya’s mobile wallet revolution<\/em><\/a>. \u201cIt is amazing how it is getting out there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlready >50% of adults in Kenya are using it. Now it is starting in South Africa and Egypt. India is in a year or two.\u201d Nikolic signed off by once again offering to introduce Epstein to Hughes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

M-Pesa traces its origins to 2004, when UK banking-sector professional and later Vodafone staffer Paul Makin said he and Nick Hughes were the original M-Pesa team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Makin tells it<\/a>, he came up with the concept and architecture. However, it took three years before the idea was developed into a viable product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vodafone filed the patent for M-Pesa on 11 August 2006, with an official priority date of 12 August 2005. The patent was granted and published on 22 February 2007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To develop the idea into a product, Vodafone appointed Sagentia, a consulting company headquartered in Cambridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The British government also provided some of the initial funding for the system, with the project receiving \u00a31 million from the UK\u2019s Department for International Development, an amount Vodafone matched.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

M-Pesa becomes a moneyspinner<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

According to Makin, the name came from a discussion the team had in a bar in Kenya. \u201cWe talked as a team in a Nairobi bar. Came up with it, asked the barman. He liked it, so it stuck.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

M-Pesa has been fabulously successful, with Vodacom reporting in its latest half-year results that revenue was up 20.9% to R4.8 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

M-Pesa now contributes 28.7% of International business service revenue. Meanwhile, Vodacom Group financial services revenue grew 20.3% to R8.0 billion, and accounts for 12.2% of Group service revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In April 2020, Vodacom and Safaricom acquired the M-Pesa brand, product development, and support services from Vodafone through a newly created joint venture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In December 2025, Vodafone announced that Vodacom, in which it holds a 65.1% stake, had increased its shareholding in Safaricom to 55%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responses from Nikolic and Hughes to Epstein Files<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nikolic is a physician and investor, and led select for-profit and not-for-profit investment activities in his role as Bill Gates\u2019 science and technology advisor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He split from Gates in the years following his exchanges with Epstein about M-Pesa to establish Biomatics Capital, a health care and life sciences venture investing firm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As co-founder and managing director of Biomatics Capital, Nikolic sits on the boards of directors for several of its portfolio companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MyBroadband contacted Biomatics Capital for comment regarding Nikolic\u2019s emails to Epstein, but neither he nor the company responded by publication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, he did provide a response to the Wall Street Journal<\/a> regarding a different series of emails where Epstein appeared to insert himself as a mediator in a dispute between Nikolic and Gates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEpstein was a master manipulator, and I deeply regret associating with him,\u201d Nikolic was quoted as saying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nikolic also reportedly said that Epstein never invested in his funds and that he was named as a backup executor to the disgraced financier\u2019s estate without his knowledge or consent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MyBroadband contacted Nick Hughes regarding his relationship with Nikolic and the emails the latter exchanged with Epstein, a convicted child sex offender and alleged human trafficker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was totally unaware of this. I have never been introduced to Epstein. I find the whole Epstein affair \u2014 totally abhorrent,\u201d Hughes said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A former science advisor to Bill Gates tried to get Jeffrey Epstein interested in M-Pesa, Vodacom’s wildly successful mobile money business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":629016,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10106,14],"tags":[103313,1109,103312,41,1789],"class_list":["post-629012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","category-cellular","tag-boris-nikolic","tag-m-pesa","tag-nick-hughes","tag-vodacom","tag-vodafone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629012"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629012"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":629157,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629012\/revisions\/629157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}