Why Kenya’s telco giant, Safaricom, is finding it so hard to ‘let go’ its CEO who is set to leave the firm and spend his time flying helicopters, cycling and listening to jazz

Why Kenya’s telco giant, Safaricom, is finding it so hard to ‘let go’ its CEO who is set to leave the firm and spend his time flying helicopters, cycling and listening to jazz

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• Mr Bob Collymore, who joined the firm in September 2010, was set to leave later this year but will now leave the telco in 2020.
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Kenya’s telecommunication giant, Safaricom has extended its CEO’s contract by a year.

               
           
               
                   

Mr Bob Collymore, who joined the firm in September 2010, was set to leave later this year but will now leave the telco in 2020.

               
           
               
                   

"I am not going anywhere. I will be here for another one year till 2020," Mr Collymore said on the sidelines of the shared value event in Nairobi.

               
           
               
                   

                                   

Safaricom Headquarters in Westlands, Nairobi

               

               
           
               
                   

Safaricom says the extra one year is to compensate for the time Mr Collymore was away on medical leave.

               
           
               
                   

The clean-shaven executive went on medical leave last year in October to seek treatment for Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML).

               
           
               
                   

He was away from work for nine months undergoing cancer treatment at a London hospital leaving Sateesh Kamath, Safaricom’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) to cover for him.

               
           
               
                   

                                   

Safaricom Chief Financial Officer Sateesh Kamath (left), Safaricom Board Chairman Mr. Nicholas Nganga and Safaricom Chief Executive Officer, Bob Collymore (right)

               

               
           
               
                   

Also read: Why Bob Collymore wont be posing with babies and shaking hands any time soon, at least for the next 5 years

               
           
               
                   

However, despite his illness, Mr Collymore was active on Twitter and occasionally posted tweets about random things such as books he was reading to sharing his music playlist. He even took to Twitter to celebrate his son who graduated with a first class honours degree in Music.

               
           
               
                   

It is easy to see why Safaricom is reluctant to let him go. Since joining the telco, Mr.Collymore has steered the company to become the most profitable Kenyan company today.

               
           
               
                   

The firm's net profit for the year ended March 2018 grew to Sh55.3 billion ($553 million), compared to Sh48.4 billion ($484 million) the year before on the back of M-Pesa and data revenues.

               
           
               
                   

                                   

Pedestrians walk past a mobile phone care centre operated by Kenyan's telecom operator Safaricom in the central business district of Kenya's capital Nairobi, May 11, 2016.

               

               
           
               
                   

During his tenure, Safaricom’s share price has increased by more than 400 per cent to Sh28. Similarly, under his watch, Safaricom subscribers skyrocketed too and the latest data from Communications Authority of Kenya shows Safaricom has a market share of 71.9 per cent in mobile subscriptions.

               
           
               
                   

Mr Collymore also saw to it that the telco stays ahead of the pack and at the moment Safaricom is the only operator that has paid for and commercially launched 4G services while Airtel and Telkom are still lost in the testing phase.

               
           
               
                   

With him, at the helm, Safaricom’s hold on the Kenyan economy has but grown stronger and stronger. According to the company’s latest annual sustainability report, Safaricom grew its value chain by Sh57 billion ($570 million) to Sh543 billion ($5.43 billion) in the year ended March 2018.

               
           
               
                   

Also read: 5 interesting Kenyan CEO’s who are cut from a different cloth that you need to know about