Safaricom is officially in Ethiopia.
While it is far from rolling out products and services to the country’s more than 110 million people, the operator has been making notable gains as it preps for a commercial launch.
Just the other day, we learned that the company has started hiring talent. The exercise seeks to pick key leaders that should guide it to its visions and missions.
In the same breath, Safaricom says that the process shows its commitment to the country’s digital future prior to commercial launch.
The development is also key because Safaricom has been tasked with very many uphill roles. For instance, the company should deploy 4Gservices by 2023.
Safaricom, and its partners including Vodacom Group, Sumitomo Corporation, and CDC Group, all under the Global Partnership for Ethiopia (GPE) umbrella, will further invest $8.5 billion over the next decade. The investment should see the transaction create 1.1 million jobs for Ethiopians.
As of now, Safaricom has already picked its executive team as earlier reported by Shega. You should remember that the company had, in July, appointed Anwar Soussa as its Managing Director. He reports to CEO Peter Ndegwa.
According to Shega, the executive team includes employees from the said arms making up GPE.
Here is the team:
Chief Strategy Officer – Masahiro Miyashita
The Japanese national brings vast experience in telecoms, having worked for Sumitomo Corporation for more than three decades, where he is currently the General Manager of the Smart Communication Platform Business Division.
Chief Technology Officer – Pedro Rabacal
Pedro been with Vodacom Group for 22 years, spending his last seven years as the and has been the CTO for Vodacom Mozambique.
Chief Consumer Business Officer – Charles Wanjohi
The Kenyan national has about two decades of commercial experience gained working for Multinationals focused on Sub-Saharan Africa, he carries a broad international perspective having worked in Kenya, South Africa, Bahrain, and experience working with 17 geographies across Sub Saharan Africa.
Previously, he worked with previous iterations of Airtel Kenya, including Celtel and Zain Kenya.
Chief Enterprise Business Officer – Chris Lazarus
At the moment, Chris is the Managing Executive for KwaZulu Natal Region. Also, Chris has been part of Vodacom South Africa since 2005, where he has held various roles within the Consumer and Enterprise Business Units.
Chief Sales and Distribution Officer – Andarge Kabtimer
Kabtimer joins Safaricom Ethiopia from Diageo – Meta Abo Brewery. He has over 20 years experience in various sectors in Ethiopia including FMCG, oil & gas, and financial institutions.
Chief Financial Services Officer – Paul Kavavu
Paul is the current Head of M-PESA new Business Ventures at Safaricom. He has 19 years of progressive experience in mobile money innovation, strategy formulation and execution, performance change management, and negotiation across financial services, telecom, and banking industries.
Paul joined Safaricom in 2002 from Absa.
Chief Finance Officer – Stanley Njoroge
Njoroge joins Safaricom Ethiopia from Guinness Nigeria PLC where he served as Finance & Strategy Director and a member of the Board.
Chief Human Resource Officer – Mokaya Mokaya
Mokaya joined Safaricom in 2007 and held various roles in the HR department.
At the moment, he is the Head HR Business Partner for the Customer Organisation at Safaricom.
Chief Legal and Risk Officer – Julie Arndt
With over two decades of experience, Julie heads the Legal Compliance Reviews and ISO Audit Assurance functions within the Vodacom Group Risk and Compliance team. She joined Vodacom in 2006.
Chief Regulatory and External Affairs Officer – Matthew Harrison–Harvey
The UK national has held several senior legal, regulatory, and external affairs roles within the Vodafone Group over the last 20 years.
Director, Project Management Office – Koichi Kawase
Koichi has spent close to 30 years in Sumitomo Corporation taking on increasingly larger and varied management roles, from Chief Strategy Officer to Chief Executive Officer to Chief Commercial Officer.
