Kenya’s biggest mobile operator Safaricom will continue offering its loan service, M-Shwari, after a commercial court dismissed microfinance firm Faulu Kenya’s bid to halt the service.

In December last year, Faulu Kenya filed a lawsuit against Safaricom at the country’s High Court, in which Faulu claimed the telecom company had infringed on its non-disclosure agreement, by going ahead to launch M-Shwari service in partnership with the Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA).

Faulu Kenya claims to have come up with the concept back in 2011 and shared the idea with Safaricom, before Faulu says the two companies signed a nondisclosure agreement.

In its defense, Safaricom had filed documents showing that it had signed a savings deal with Faulu on April 12, 2012, exactly a week after it had already signed the M-Shwari lending service deal with CBA, on April 4.

Subsequently, Safaricom launched the M-Shwari service on November 27 last year, in which its M-Pesa customers could save and borrow money from CBA. In just three months since the launch, CBA released statistics showing that the service had received over $11 million in deposits, with $1.5 million going out as loans.

And a Kenyan court has said that Faulu Kenya has failed to prove that it is the originator of the M-Shwari mobile savings and loan service.

“The upshot of the foregoing is that the plaintiff has failed to establish a prima facie case that would result in this court granting the injunctive orders that it seeks,” Justice Havelock said in his ruling.

“Apart from its failure to prove its alleged copyright, I tend to agree with the defendant (Safaricom) that the latter has not breached the plaintiff’s (Faulu Kenya) confidence,” Justice Havelock added.

Faulu Kenya has said that it will appeal the court’s decision.