On Monday morning, July 1, 2019, Kenyans woke up to the sad news of the passing on of Kenya’s telecommunications giant, Safaricom Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Bob Collymore, aged 61.
Reports indicate that the Safaricom boss succumbed to Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) at his home in the wee hours of the morning, leaving behind his wife, Wambui Kamiru and four children.
In 2018, Collymore resumed his duties as CEO of Safaricom after taking a 9-month medical leave in the United Kingdom. He continued to undergo treatment at a number of hospitals in the country until his demise.
The Guyanese-born British citizen will be remembered as the man who made billions for Safaricom, a man under whose stewardship showed exemplary effort in steering the company through difficult times and a truly amazing human being, who changed the lives of many.
Collymore helped to build Safaricom into East Africa’s most profitable company, thanks to his innovative spirit and the success of the popular mobile money transfer service M-PESA.
Safaricom, which is 35 percent owned by South Africa’s Vodacom, controls about 62 percent of Kenya’s mobile market, with over 31 million subscribers.
Britain’s Vodafone has a 5 percent stake and the Kenyan government has 35 percent. Private investors also own shares via the Nairobi Securities Exchange.
Meanwhile, Kenyans.co.ke has compiled some of Collymore’s greatest achievements since he took over from his predecessor Michael Joseph, in 2010, as Safaricom’s CEO.
1. Profits
Before Collymore took over as Safaricom’s CEO, Joseph had already cemented Safaricom’s presence in the Kenyan telecommunication industry.
However, the tech, the innovations, the supernormal profits, and the community development happened majorly under Collymore’s reign.
Collymore joined Safaricom at a time when India’s Bharti Airtel was negotiating to buy Zain Africa, as a move to dethrone Safaricom as the top dog in the telco industry.
To the surprise of many, Collymore made a tough call and increased the prices despite the stiff competition. This was seen as a huge risk since it is a well-known fact that consumers like cheap stuff and free things.
He introduced Safaricom 2.0; a second phase of the company after the first CEO. Safaricom 2.0 was all about change and focus; changing the company’s structure, culture, and mindsets and focusing on delivering superior customer service.
Since then, the company’s profits have grown insanely.
In March 2010, under Joseph, Safaricom recorded a profit of Ksh20.9 billion, which was at the time considered the highest a corporate could achieve in Kenya’s business environment.
However, some pessimists got some credence when Safaricom recorded a pretax profit of Ksh18.4 billion in 2011.
Although the amount was a decline from the Ksh20.9 billion pretax profit of the previous year, Collymore refused to be complacent.
To prove the critics wrong, he used the decline to show just how much he was dedicated to growing the company.
He launched various services and products including the 'Niko Na Safaricom' concerts across the country which helped drive new subscriptions that would start paying off in the 2012/2013 financial year.
In May 2013, Safaricom, for the first time in three years, reported an increase in net profits from Ksh12.6 billion reported in 2012 to Ksh17.5 billion. The profit growth was attributed to the good performance of M-PESA, text, and data.
In May 2018, Safaricom announced the financial results for the year ended March 2018 showing a record of net profits worth Ksh55.3 billion compared to Ksh48.4 billion the year before on the back of M-PESA and data revenues.
In May 2019, Safaricom reported a 14.7 percent jump in net profits for the year ended March 2019 to Ksh63.4 billion.
2. M-PESA
M-PESA, a service launched in 2007 with a simple idea; “Send Money Home” is today a banking tool for millions of Kenyans across the 47 counties.
It has helped to drive financial inclusion even in rural areas fostering economic growth for all, including the women.
Data from financial inclusion report in 2019 revealed that the proportion of Kenya’s population with access to formal financial services had reached 83 percent, up from 75 percent in 2016.
This has largely been driven by mobile technology and Safaricom claiming the majority of market shares, as one of the drivers of financial access in Kenya.
Under Collymore, M-PESA has evolved from a basic SIM card-based money transfer application into a fully-fledged financial service.
It has partnered with banks to offer loans and savings as well as merchant payments services through the use of Lipa na M-PESA Paybill.
According to January 2019 data from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), Kenyans transacted nearly half the country’s GDP via mobile money platforms.
A total of Ksh3.98 trillion was moved via mobile in 2018, a 10 percent (or Ksh346 billion) increase from what was recorded in 2017.
Kenyans transacted Ksh10.92 billion shillings per day via mobile in 2018 with M-PESA taking the lion’s share of the transactions.
The mobile money transactions in 2018 were equivalent to 44 percent of Kenya’s GDP.
The financial inclusion has lifted more than 800,000 people out of poverty and made financial access way easier than it was a decade ago.
Recently, Safaricom brought to life Fuliza, an M-PESA overdraft service enabling Kenyans to pay for goods and services when they are short of cash, and it is already a success!
Also, with Bob Collymore at the helm of Safaricom, the M-PESA Foundation has, since 2010, invested in large scale health, environmental conservation, education, and integrated water projects.
The M-PESA Foundation integrates the use of mobile technology in its investments while focusing on areas of greatest need and impact.
3. Network Coverage
Safaricom, under Collymore, began laying fiber in the ground and allowing others to go through poles for Kenyans across the country to get connected.
By 2017, the company had invested about Ksh30 billion every year geared towards improving and expanding its network coverage, which was, by then, encompassing about 95 per cent of Kenya’s population.
In his tenure, Joseph took a bold decision to defy the odds and critics who were stating that the 3G network had no market in Kenya.
This drive was further strengthened by Collymore, who, in 2014 made a move to ensure all Kenyans were covered.
He launched an aggressive strategy to make sure that every part of Kenya was covered and he invested heavily in infrastructure.
The 4G network was launched in selected areas in Nairobi, and data across Kenyan towns was upgraded to 3G.
Also, Collymore ensured that more than 78 percent of Kenya’s population was covered by at least a 2G network in 2014. This further drove the company’s growth in profits to where it is today.
Currently, Safaricom is still investing in the expansion of 4G network across the country now that 5G network is still at early stages.
By mid-2018, Safaricom had 4,677 sites providing 95 percent population coverage with 3G and 4G network.
4. Hiring more people with disabilities
In July 2018, Collymore announced that Safaricom would increase the number of staff living with disabilities to 5 percent by March 2021, up from the current 1.7 percent, as part of its strategic business objectives.
As part of its Diversity and Inclusion Programme introduced in 2016, it is reported that Safaricom has so far employed 96 members of staff with various disabilities including visual and hearing impairments, paraplegics, and people living with albinism and dwarfism.
“For Safaricom, inclusivity goes beyond hiring people with disabilities to fill a quota. It’s about giving them the same opportunities for career growth, leveling the playing field by catering to various needs such as access to our facilities, specialised medical insurance cover, transport to and from work, and running a robust Diversity and Inclusion programme where everybody feels respected, valued, and welcome in the workplace,” Collymore once commented.
In December 2017, Safaricom showcased its commitment to greater inclusion by launching the M-PESA Interactive Voice Response (IVR) service.
The service allows visually impaired customers to query their M-PESA balances without having to share their PIN numbers for assistance, thereby protecting customers’ personal information and dignity while using the money transfer and payments service.
5. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
In terms of CSR, there is no other corporate entity in Kenya like Safaricom.
Safaricom was once ranked the top employer in the telecommunications industry across the globe and in Kenya.
It offers the best customer service thanks to its heavy presence in social media. It also tops the rest regarding customer engagement with customers online.
Similarly, the company has various storytelling concepts through products like Blaze for the youth, as well as the employed brand storytelling concepts like the 2018 Funtastic 4Gs that is a web series around its 4G service.
With their current slogan, Twaweza, the company is stopping at nothing in changing people’s lives for the better.
It runs the Safaricom Foundation, which was established in 2003 but has grown tremendously under Collymore. The Safaricom Foundation is in line with the Sustainable Development Goal of education for all.
The achievements made so far by the company can only be told better by the Safaricom Foundation website.
They grant full scholarships to learners from disadvantaged backgrounds in order to give them an opportunity to study.
6. Most preferred Service provider
In the last 9 years that Collymore has been a CEO, Safaricom has passed the 30 millionth customer milestone, cementing the firm’s position as the most preferred mobile service provider in the country.
Data from a March 2019 report by Communications Authority, showed that Kenya had around 46.6 million active mobile subscriptions as at December 2018 and in terms of market share, Safaricom PLC had a 64.2 percent.
This is a concise testimony as to how Safaricom has grown under Collymore’s leadership.
7. Safaricom Jazz
Collymore was obviously a huge fan of Jazz, which is why in 2014, the company started the Safaricom Jazz festival.
The festival celebrates jazz musicians as well as local talent far from growing the company’s brand.
The proceeds collected from Safaricom Jazz festival goes to initiatives like the Ghetto Classics, a program that teaches music to children living in poverty, equipping them with skills and opportunities to succeed.
Some of the jazz artists that have been featured so far include David Sanborn, Salif Keita, Hugh Masekela, Alune Wade, Fatoumata Diawara, among others who have also graced the stage.
It has also made Kenyan acts such a spectacular phenomenon.
8. Safaricom Twaweza
This was brought to life in June 2017, when Safaricom announced the repositioning of its brand from telecommunications to a digital lifestyle enabler.
The slogan was changed from ‘The Better Option’ to ‘Twaweza’ which means that when we come together, great things happen.
Living up to its name, Safaricom has indeed changed the lives of many and through the Nawe Kila Wakati initiative, hundreds of thousands of people across Kenya have something positive to say about how the company has lifted them.
Rest In Eternal Peace Bob Collymore. Condolences to the family and the greater Safaricom Limited.
