Following months of immense speculation, Kenya’s most profitable company and the largest company by revenue in East Africa has announced the appointment of a new Chief Executive Officer, Peter Ndegwa.
“The Safaricom PLC Board of Directors has today resolved to appoint Mr Peter Ndegwa as the company’s Chief Executive Officer effective April 1, 2020,” said the company’s chairman Nicholas Ng’ang’a in a statement released on Thursday.
The announcement comes only after a day after interim CEO Michael Joseph, alluded to the conclusion of the recruitment exercise for the top job during the company’s 19th-anniversary celebrations. Peter’s appointment follows a strong desire expressed by the board to appoint a Kenyan for the first time to the helm of one of Africa’s most respected and leading brands.
He becomes the third CEO of the company after Michael Joseph and the late Bob Collymore, the former of whom stepped back into the CEO position after Bob Collymore succumbed to cancer on July 2019. Collymore is remembered for his key role in growing Safaricom into the regional business powerhouse it is today, particularly with its revolutionary mobile money transfer product, M-Pesa. He is also remembered for his unwavering support of the arts in Kenya and beyond.
As he returns home from a years-long sojourn abroad and while he has inordinately large shoes to fill, the board of directors appear confident in their pick. “We are confident that Peter will carry on our vision of transforming lives while keeping us focused on meeting our customers’ needs and holding us to our new commitment of being simple, transparent and honest,” said Mr Ng’ang’a.
Peter brings with him substantial multinational experience from previous senior management roles in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and the United Kingdom. He joins Safaricom from Diageo, one of the world’s largest producers of alcoholic beverages, where he is currently serving as the Managing Director of Continental Europe and oversees a portfolio of 50 countries.
He is the first African to do so for Diageo outside Africa. He holds an MBA from the London Business School and a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Nairobi. He is also a Certified Public Accountant and a member of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK).