Peter Ndegwa Officially Takes Over As New Safaricom CEO

By Juma / Published April 1, 2020 | 9:25 am

Kenya’s telecommunications giant Safaricom PLC is now officially under a Kenyan CEO, Mr. Peter Ndegwa who officially took over the mantle from Michael Joseph.

“Join us in welcoming our new CEO, Peter Ndegwa to the Safaricom family,” Safaricom said in a tweet on their official handle.

Michael Joseph took over as an interim Chief Executive Officer after the death of Bob Collymore. Mr. Ndegwa is taking over today April 1, 2020.

In what some media outlets have described as “baptism by fire”, Peter Ndegwa is coming at the time the business world is under the mercy of the fast-spreading deadly Coronavirus that has seen investors at NSE taking off from blue-chip companies.

The deadly Coronavirus has seen business especially the hotel sector shutting down and laying off thousands of employees. For the telecommunications sector, mobile money platforms are likely to bloom as the government continues to encourage Kenyans to use cashless forms of transactions.

“His words and deeds, however small or off-the-cuff will instantly spread and be amplified. Occasionally, his sentiments will be misinterpreted,” wrote the Standard Newspaper on Sunday.

Mr. Ndegwa is taking over the most profitable company not only in Kenya but beyond and will be expected to either maintain it or make it better. Any drop in profits, lower than his predecessors will most likely be blamed on him.

He is “succeeding two-larger-than-life CEOs, Bob Collymore and Michael Joseph, and he must stamp his own imprint to walk out of their shadows,” the Standard Newspaper wrote.

In the new report for the year 2019 released by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), Safaricom’s M-Pesa is still a giant to beat when it comes to mobile money transactions in the country.

According to the report, M-Pesa accounted for 98.8 percent of all mobile money customers in Kenya as of December 31, 2020, followed by Airtel Money and Telkom Kenya’s T-Kash.

READ: Safaricom Set To Become The First To Launch 5G Network In The Region

About Juma

Juma is an enthusiastic journalist who believes that journalism has power to change the world either negatively or positively depending on how one uses it.(020) 528 0222 or Email: info@sokodirectory.com

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