Bob Collymore has helped to build Safaricom into East Africa’s most profitable company, thanks to the popular mobile money transfer service M-Pesa and a growing customer base. However, he took a nine-month medical leave in late 2017 to return to his native England to battle cancer, and has now indicated he wants to step down, the sources told Reuters. Safaricom, which is 35 per cent owned by South Africa’s Vodacom, controls about 62 per cent of Kenya’s mobile market, with 30 million subscribers. ICT CS Joe Mucheru said there had been no formal communication from the company on Collymore’s successor. Collymore, who said he had acquired Kenyan citizenship in recent years, said skills were more important than nationality.

Source: The Star April 29, 2019 13:26 UTC