Safaricom PLC is a listed Kenyan mobile network operator headquartered at Safaricom House in Nairobi, Kenya. It is the largest telecommunications provider in Kenya, and one of the most profitable companies in the East and Central African region. The company offers mobile telephony, mobile money transfer, consumer electronics, ecommerce, cloud computing, data, music streaming, and fibre optic services. It is most renowned as the home of MPESA, a mobile banking SMS-based service.

Safaricom controls approximately 63.5% percent of the Kenyan market as at 30 June 2019. Safaricom had a subscriber base estimated at approximately 33.1 million.

In terms of voice market and SMS market share Safaricom controls 56.8% and 95.5% respectively.

Safaricom was formed in 1997 as a fully owned subsidiary of Telkom Kenya. In May 2000, Vodafone Group PLC of the United Kingdom acquired a 40% stake and management responsibility for the company. In 2008, the government offered 25% of its shares to the public through the Nairobi Securities Exchange.

Safaricom was ranked as Africa’s Best Employer, 67th in the World by the Forbes Global 200 list of World’s Best Employers. In March 2018, Safaricom was ranked as the #1 company to work for in the annual BrighterMonday Best 100 Companies to Work for in Kenya according to career professionals and job seekers.

As of December 2017, Safaricom employed over 4,500 people, of whom 75 per cent were based in Nairobi, the Headquarters, with the remainder based in other big cities like Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru and Eldoret, in which it operates retail outlets. It has nationwide dealerships to ensure customers across the country have access to its products and services.

In November 2012, Safaricom announced it would be offering a new mobile phone banking product in conjunction with the Commercial Bank of Africa, tapping into an underdeveloped financial services market.

On 1 November 2010, Bob Collymore was appointed chief executive officer, succeeding Michael Joseph (businessman). Collymore died on 1 July 2019. Michael Joseph was appointed by the Safaricom PLC board to succeed Bob Collymore in acting capacity.

On 24 October 2019, The Safaricom board of directors appointed Mr. Peter Ndegwa Chief Executive Officer effective 1 April 2020.

Safaricom CEO, Peter Ndegwa. Image courtesy of People Daily.

Featured Image courtesy of Google

Text courtesy of Wikipedia