A mobile subscriber withdraws money from an M-Pesa agent. M-Pesa was
launched more than a decade ago. PHOTO | JOSEPH KANYI | NMG
The interim CEO of Kenya’s top telecoms operator Safaricom said
on Wednesday he would focus on expanding the firm’s mobile financial
services business M-Pesa beyond Kenya.
Michael Joseph
took over the helm of East Africa’s most profitable company, which is
part held by South Africa’s Vodacom and Britain’s Vodafone, this month
after the death of long-serving boss Bob Collymore.
“I’m
particularly keen to work closely with the team to take M-Pesa beyond
Kenya,” Joseph said in a statement, adding he would lead the company
while the board found a permanent CEO.
Joseph, who is a board member, served as the CEO until 2010, when Collymore took over.
M-Pesa,
which allows users to send money, borrow, save and pay bills even on a
basic mobile handset, has been the key driver of the company’s profit
growth in recent years, helping pick up the slack in data and voice
revenue streams.
Collymore had told Reuters in May that
Safaricom and Vodacom would buy the intellectual property rights of
M-Pesa from Vodafone for $13 million, so they could expand the service
in Africa.
M-Pesa, launched more than a decade ago, now serves more than 22.6 million people in Kenya and has been copied abroad.
Joseph also said he would work on the data business to attain a better balance between consumption and revenue growth.
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