As Safaricom released its FY020 financial results, we had a chance to hold an online meeting with CEO Peter Ndegwa and CFO Sateesh Kamath. Our discussion focused on Safaricom’s strategic shift going forward and the digitization process.
On his part, Ndegwa talked on the nature of the joint venture (JV) with Vodacom with regards to MPESA acquisition. Mpesa in Kenya has integrated with all banks, Paypal, MoneyGram, and Western Union thus a mode of make remittances from 160 countries across the globe. Therefore, the Kenyan diaspora can send money back home to regions that the physical infrastructure is yet to reach such as rural areas.
Ndegwa reiterated that he will continue with the customer-centric approach that has been part of Safaricom’s culture since inception. For instance, Safaricom announced a new device financing program dubbed #LipaMdogoMdogo in partnership with Google with daily instalments of as low as Ksh20 per day. Ndegwa says that the decision was informed by growth in smartphone usage in Kenya such as vendors increasing their customers in online marketplaces or bodaboda guys leveraging on online delivery services to increase revenues. However, a large population still uses 2G phones the high prices and tough economic conditions making the smartphones unaffordable. Under the flexible payment plan, the customers can get quality 4G phones and make daily repayments.
On his part, Sateesh highlighted the investments that Safaricom has made towards the digital transformation. In the last financial year, the firm has invested Ksh36B in its network thus improving customer experience. For instance, customers can talk to Customer Support Team rather than calling and waiting. Furthermore, the telco has deployed software that informs them of the events happening across over 6000 sites that they have across Kenya. In a win situation for digital media companies, the CFO announced measures to push budgets towards digital marketing to suit the digital-savvy youthful population in Kenya.
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