Peter Ndegwa is Wednesday set to take over as Chief Executive Officer at Safaricom to succeed Bob Collymore, who died of cancer on July 1, last year, a move that will make him the first Kenyan to run the giant telco.
Mr Ndegwa, an alumnus of Starehe Boys Centre and former East African Breweries finance director, will be betting on M-Pesa, data business and Safaricom’s likely entry into Ethiopia to shape the leading telephone services company’s growth in profitability.
Integrity is about doing what you say and humility is knowing that there is always something more you can do,” said Mr Ndegwa, an economist and accountant who has just returned from climbing Mount Kilimanjaro as he prepared to take over the corner office at Safaricom’s Waiyaki Way headquarters.
In both the medium and long-term, the father of one, who is married to Jemimah Ndegwa, will have to define his strategy for the company’s offerings, such as M-Pesa, which has emerged as Safaricom’s profit and sales driver in recent years in the face of sluggish growth in voice revenues.
The company has been shedding market share in voice to its top rival, Airtel Kenya, which is in merger talks with Telkom Kenya, the third-largest player in the mobile phones services market.
Mr Ndegwa told the Business Daily on Tuesday that his strategy will hinge on M-Pesa and deepening the data business. He added that there are still great opportunities in data, M-Pesa and geographical expansion at a time when Safaricom has announced plans to enter Ethiopia, which is keen to liberalise its telecommunication services.
Safaricom will be looking to upgrade the capabilities of M-Pesa to include buying insurance and investing in wealth management, a move that would put the firm in direct competition with Insurers.
This was a significant growth considering that M-Pesa accounted for 23.3 percent of Safaricom’s annual revenue three years earlier. This explains why Mr Ndegwa has trained his sights on strengthening the M-Pesa offering.
Reduced economic activity
The growth of M-Pesa helped offset a sharp slowdown in the growth of Safaricom’s data business and voice, which grew 0.17 percent.
The executive suite change comes at a period when Safaricom’s top rival Airtel Kenya, has sustained an aggressive hunt for subscribers, cutting Safaricom market share to 64.8 percent in December from 79.6 percent in June 2017.
Besides weathering this competition, Mr Ndegwa is expected to shepherd the firm’s entry into Ethiopia, where Safaricom plans to bid for one of two telecoms licences later this year in partnership with South Africa’s Vodacom, which owns 35 percent of Safaricom. Ethio Telecom, the State monopoly, has also taken steps towards offering a minority stake to a strategic investor.
“There is enormous potential still for Safaricom and I have no doubt that the new CEO will recognise this and take the necessary decisions to achieve this,” said Mr Joseph.
