Word on the street has it that Joshua Oigara, the former CEO of Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB Group) might be headed to Safaricom as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
The contract of the current CEO, Mr. Peter Ndegwa, is expected to come to an end on April 1, with sources indicating that the board has remained mute on whether the contract is going to be renewed.
Mr. Ndegwa has been at the helm of the giant telecommunications company in Kenya for a period of three years. He took over after the death of the then-CEO Bob Collymore.
As the CEO, Peter Ndegwa has overseen the company launching in Ethiopia. He is currently pushing to have M-Pesa introduced in Ethiopia.
“With a population of approximately 120 million people and financial inclusion at about 35 percent, 57 percent mobile penetration, and annual inward remittance of about $4.2 billion, Ethiopia offers a great opportunity to grow the business to the Kenya level in 10 years,” he told investors in an earlier forum.
As of February 2023, Safaricom Telecommunications Ethiopia PLC had penetrated around 10 percent of the population. This translates to over 11 million people, 847 network sites in 25 cities, onboarded 28,000 retailers, 103 distributor shops, and 5,000 acquisition agents. The company had also crossed the 2 million mark in customer gross additions.
But the talk about Joshua Oigara going to Safaricom seems far-fetched. The man, a banker who headed KCB Group for almost a decade, is currently the CEO of Stanbic Bank Kenya and South Sudan. The man is not known to abandon contracts for greener pastures, so, he might not be heading to Safaricom.
The only man holding the record of changing positions and careers the same way someone changes clothes is Polycarp Igathe, and currently, he does not fit the bill of heading Safaricom. Will Peter Ndegwa’s contract be renewed? Time will tell.
