For those who were waiting for Bob Collymore to leave so that a “Kenyan can take over” are in for a long wait because the CEO is not leaving any time soon.
Safaricom has extended his tenure for one more year to “to compensate for the time he was away on medical leave.”
Bob Collymore will now leave in the year 2020.
Speculations had surfaced over Bob Collymore exit with sources indicating that the government was “rooting for a Kenyan” to replace him.
Safaricom is Kenya’s largest telecommunication and the largest in terms of posting “crazy profits”. Safaricom registered a 14.7 percent increase in net profits to 63.4 billion shillings for the financial year ended March 2019.
In what was again described as “crazy” profits from Safaricom, the revenue hit 240.3 billion shillings with the voice service revenue growing by 0.3 percent to 95.94 billion shillings.
The revenue from M-Pesa grew by 19.2 percent to 74.99 billion shillings making both the voice service and M-Pesa the two largest contributors to the company’s revenue.
The M-PESA, mobile data, messaging and fixed service revenue all up by 19.2, 6.4, 1.3 and 22.7 percent respectively while there was a 13.1 percent on a year-to-year growth in EBIT to 89.6 billion shillings with EBIT margin up 190bps to 35.8%.
Safaricom’s total customer base grew by 7.7 percent to 31.8 million. The company is also issuing dividends worth 50 billion shillings, 1.25 shillings per share an increase by 13.6 percent from the previous year to a dividend yield of 4.2 percent.