Safaricom is an entirely new company right now if its management is anything to go by. The telco, which was launched over two decades ago as Telkom Kenya’s subsidiary, has grown to become one of the largest companies in Kenya and the larger Eastern Africa. It was steered to its first stint of success by Michael Joseph, a South African/Kenyan engineer, and management expert who is credited with launching M-PESA services in 2007. The mobile money product is the carrier’s largest earner and has managed to edge out the competition in Kenya with over 96 percent market share.
Joseph’s tenure as CEO ended in 2010, and in 2011, the Safaricom board hired Bob Collymore, an English national who also propelled Safaricom to greater heights. Multiple products were launched during his tenure, some of which were associated with M-PESA, continuing to cannibalize rivals thanks to its widespread adoption. M-PESA grew beyond a platform that allowed people to send money to each other. It closed key partnerships with other global organizations for international remittances and forged collaborations with local banks to offer credit, including M-Shwari, KCB M-PESA, and an overdraft facility, Fuliza.
These developments were basically achieved under the leadership of the two CEOs. However, in 2019, Collymore succumbed to cancer, and Joseph was re-hired, albeit in an interim position, as Safaricom’s CEO. This perhaps is the time when some changes started happening in the company. The telco relaxed its expenditure on campaigns and cut back on PR budgets that had worked in favour of the telco in terms of reach. Other than that, some key managerial overhauls were on the way.
In 2020, Joseph gave way to Peter Ndegwa, Safaricom’s first Kenyan CEO. Ndegwa arrived with a new leadership style that focused on making Safaricom a tech-focused company. During his early days, he reportedly made some staff apply for their jobs. Aside from that, Ndegwa started to shed off Safaricom chiefs, replacing them with new choices. All the top managers who served under Collymore periodically left the company for other jobs or retired. At one time, it seemed that some key chiefs who worked under Collymore had been fully replaced. However, Joseph still stuck with the company and at one time served as board chairman after the retirement of Nicholas Ng’ang’a. Joseph then gave way to career banker John Ngumi, but his tenure didn’t last for long. During that time, Joseph remained as a board director.
Ngumi would then resign as chairman in early 2023 and was replaced by lawyer Adil Kwawaja. Things have remained mostly intact until yesterday when Safaricom announced that Michael Joseph has resigned his role as a board director.
“It is the deep foundation and connection with the communities that Michael developed that led to the phenomenal growth, development of innovative products and services, ensuring Safaricom became deeply embedded in every it of our society,” part of the announcement reads. “During his tenure, Michael oversaw the highly successful launch and phenomenal growth of MPESA and its related services,” read a statement by the telco.
This effectively ushers in a new era following the dismantling of an old regime led by the first two CEOs. It could be argued that the telco might be contemplating changes in its operational approach, considering the challenges it faces, including diminishing profits in Kenya and the need to address a new market in Ethiopia, where it also plans to launch M-PESA. Simultaneously, these developments have arisen at a where time one would anticipate Safaricom to address other issues, such as numerous complaints from social media users regarding its lackluster customer support and a multitude of concerns, including the recent M-PESA outage that was met with complete silence.
We anticipate positive outcomes stemming from this reorganization, given the strong faith people have in a company that has also played a pivotal role as a significant Kenyan brand.
