Kenya’s arguably most successful publicly listed firm Safaricom PLC recently celebrated its 24th anniversary. The day, October 23rd 2024, was marked by on-ground activations which roped in the firm’s over 6000 employees including Chief Executive Officer Peter Ndegwa to thank Kenyans for staying loyal to the network which went live for the first time in 2000.
Later on the day, Ndegwa appeared on the JKLive show on Royal Media Services’ Citizen TV where he had a wide-ranging discussion on matters innovation, security, collaboration with government and the future prospects of the firm with the show’s host Jeff Koinange.
Ndegwa kicked off the interview by sharing his thoughts on one of Safaricom PLC’s most famous adverts from the early days that employed great cinematography of some of Kenya’s most iconic landscapes and a catch tune which set the pace for the company creating an identity as a national asset for the country.
“With adverts, in corporate life we say, when you hear kids actually singing the ad without knowing which brand it is, you know it’s an iconic brand,” Ndegwa said in reference to the Niko na Safaricom advert.
In his reflections of the celebration of the day and the milestone, Ndegwa was keen to acknowledge the impact and contributions of over 36 million Kenyans who use Safaricom’s voice services and 33 million Kenyans who use the company’s money transfer service better known as M-Pesa.
Ndegwa who took over the reins of the company in 2020 stated during the interview that while a lot of how the company operates has changed over the years to keep up with global standard of excellence in operation, the core values remain the same.
“Empowering communities has always been the cornerstone of how Safaricom has operated.” Peter Ndegwa.
“We support the most important passion points that Kenyans have. We’ve spent Ksh. 2 billion on sports since Safaricom started.
Ndegwa also extensively mentioned supporting communities through the company’s foundation work with the Safaricom and M-Pesa Foundations.
He added that by staying focused on the core elements of the business – keeping the country connected – Safaricom has been able to build community over the years through innovation.
“By focusing on the business, our main role in society is to keep the country connected, whether through connectivity on voice or data and accessing the internet or later on when we set up M-Pesa, keeping the country connected based on payments.” Ndegwa said.
Ndegwa further took the opportunity to pay tribute to his predecessors Michael Joseph and Bob Collymore saying, “Organizations are about eras; “Michael Joseph was about starting the company, building the network and keeping the country connected. Bob (Collymore) came in, really accelerated the roll-out of 3G… and then eventually we started 4G. But then he also pushed the boundaries around M-Pesa being a much bigger part of society in terms of going beyond payments,” he said.
He added, “Coming into the digital age where we have big data, artificial intelligence and 5G, we have reframed the vision of Safaricom, from being just a telecommunication organization to now being a purpose-led technology company,” he said while emphasising that all these evolutions are still centred on community.
Ndegwa also lauded the late Minister for Finance John Michuki who though he held the post in an acting capacity following the censure of his predecessor Amos Kimunya, was pivotal in influencing regulation to allow the platform to operate.
Ndegwa recounts an anecdote in which Michael Joseph demonstrated the efficiency of M-Pesa by having Mr Michuki’s farm manager pay the Minister’s farm workers remotely via the platform thus earning his support.
“There were many more voices that had to be convinced, but it shows the importance of the right regulations when you have an innovation,” Ndegwa said.
On June 24th this year, the country witnessed a historic event when public protests over government implementation of fiscal and monetary policies that the public viewed as oppressive sparked a series of demonstrations culminating in the storming of parliament.
On the day, Safaricom PLC’s network suffered a coincidental ill-timed outtage which led to speculation that the firm may have been complicit in compromising protestors’ ability to coordinate their movements on the days when the protest was held.
Ndegwa was quick to allay fears that the outage was intentioned, instead saying that the coincidence was regregttable and tha the firm has been working since to ensure no such incident occurrs againl.
“When you’re in a leadership position like mine, you are in a critical role that serves the country in many ways. Whether that is a crisis like COVID-19, or drought, or floods, whether it is in those moments where the internet is not available and people want to connect, you have to accept that managing leadership is taking that responsibility,” he said.
He added that despite facing heavy criticism, he did not take opposition personal opting to view the situation as a declaration by the public to hold Safaricom to a high standard of accountability.
“If you see a brand under attack in that way, it means that people care. It is about us reconfirming our commitment to them, that reliable customer experience is the first thing that we focus on to make sure that our brand continues to live for the next 24 to 25 years,” Ndegwa said.
“We have to support our customers live better,” he concluded on the matter.
The CEO foreshadowed the next phase of Safaricom PLC’s evolution by highlighting the interoperability which such functions as M-Pesa have already started applying. He pointed out that money transfer has benefited from M-Pesa as an linkage which has so far enabled funds transfer between banks seamlessly to the point that there are 4000 M-Pesa transactions every second.
On expansion into Ethiopia which happened in 2021, Ndegwa hails it as a proud moment when Safaricom led a consortium of firms drawn from across the globe to set up shop in Africa’s second-largest country against stiff competition from older and more experienced firms.
“We have made huge progress. We are seeing commercial acceleration. Half of the network we built in Kenya over 24 years we built in Ethiopia in 2 and a half years. In 5 years time our operations in Ethiopia will be delivering more than half of the growth of the Safaricom group that Kenya is achieving,” Ndegwa said.
With the year-on-year growth witnessed in Kenya and the inroads the firm is making in Ethiopia, Ndegwa is weary of challenges arising from security and privacy of data. He said part of the USD 350 million the firm spends annually is targeted at leveraging big data and artificial intelligence in curbing fraud and identity theft on the firm’s various platforms.
He said M-Pesa’s infrastructure is secure by design and has undergone improvements over time. He however said the most important element of security is education and creating awareness among users of the network’s services.
“In the coming months we are going to announce a program where we will make sure if instanes of fraud are not the fault of the victim, we will be able to do more for customers to address the challenge,” he said.
Ndegwa added, “The reason why we are confident about that is because we built a lot of controls and a lot of security into M-Pesa.”
Ndegwa concluded by saying the firm will continue to push the boundaries of technological innovation to solve societal challenges.
Watch the full interview here