Safaricom has picked Sitoyo Lopokoiyit, current Head of Financial Services Division, as an interim Managing Director to lead the new Mpesa joint venture with Vodacom, M-Pesa Africa.
Vodacom and Safaricom completed the acquisition of the Mpesa intellectual property in a Ksh1.4 billion deal and intend to grow the platform beyond Kenya. The move will accelerate M-PESA’s growth in Africa by giving Vodacom and Safaricom full control of the M-PESA brand, product development, and support services as well as the opportunity to expand M-PESA into new African markets.
Safaricom in a statement said Mr. Lopokoiyot’s nomination is in line with plans to create a leadership structure for the joint venture. Other members will include commercial director, finance director, technology director, head of compliance and risk, and the chief of financial services.
During the release of FY19/20 financial result, Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa said that Mpesa in Kenya has integrated with all banks, Paypal, MoneyGram, and Western Union enabling clients to make remittances from 160 countries across the globe.
Outgoing CEO Michael Joseph said that there are talks around the expansion of MPESA GLOBAL where Safaricom is looking to implement more use cases for the Mpesa product. For instance, there is a new marketplace App in development that will enhance MPESA as a lifestyle platform.
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