Safaricom has appointed Frankline Okata as its new Chief Enterprise Enterprise Officer to interchange Cynthia Karuri-Kropac, in one other main management change on the telco large. The reshuffle is a part of a broader reset of the corporate’s government staff beneath CEO Peter Ndegwa, as Safaricom bets on enterprise and digital companies to offset stagnating voice and SMS revenues.
“Frankline brings a wealth of expertise and a superb understanding of our Enterprise enterprise and operations,” Ndegwa stated in an announcement seen by Techcabal. “He joined Safaricom in 2006 as a Buyer Care Consultant and held a number of roles within the Care Centre earlier than shifting to the Enterprise Enterprise Unit in 2011, the place he grew by numerous roles.”
Okata additionally led Safaricom’s technique to scale built-in packaged expertise options, and was liable for the Small and Micro Enterprises segments, the CEO added. His appointment suggests a shift towards selling inside expertise to drive the corporate’s subsequent part.
Karuri-Kropac, who joined Safaricom from AT&T in 2022, exited the function lower than two years into her tenure. She had been introduced in to stabilise the enterprise division following a collection of short-lived management stints, together with that of Kris Senanu, who left in 2022 after barely a yr.
She left the corporate within the first week of July, in accordance with a supply accustomed to the matter who requested anonymity to talk freely.
“On behalf of the whole Safaricom household, I lengthen our gratitude to Cynthia for her contributions and management over the previous couple of years and want her success in her subsequent chapter,” Ndegwa stated. “ She led our efforts to drive new progress areas in enterprise, with a deal with IoT, ICT, and Cloud options, that are an essential a part of our imaginative and prescient of changing into Africa’s main purpose-led expertise firm.”
Karuri-Kropac’s departure additionally marks the third management change within the enterprise unit in simply over three years. The division has change into more and more essential to Safaricom’s progress technique, because the telco strikes past voice and textual content into enterprise connectivity, cloud, and digital monetary companies.
Since Peter Ndegwa grew to become CEO in April 2020, Safaricom’s government bench has undergone a near-complete reset. All chief officers who served beneath the late and former CEO Bob Collymore have left—both by exits or early retirement—and have been changed inside one or two years. That checklist contains Sylvia Mulinge, the previous Chief Client Enterprise Officer and now CEO of MTN Uganda.
The management shakeup comes amid a broader technique change on the telco. Voice and SMS revenues are flat, whereas M-PESA continues to increase. In 2024, M-PESA accounted for 44% of Safaricom’s $2.8 billion (KES 364.3 billion) service income, after rising 15.2% to $1.2 billion (KES 161.1 billion). The cellular cash platform now processes over $11.6 billion (KES 1.5 trillion) month-to-month from greater than 30 million energetic customers.
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