Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa appointed chairman of Ethiopian division amid strong growth
The telco's customer base has also grown to 8.8 million, including 7.1 million active data users, according to the company.
Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa has been appointed chairman of the company’s Ethiopian division, succeeding founding CEO Michael Joseph, who has held the role since August 2022.
Joseph was instrumental in securing Safaricom Ethiopia's first private telecom licence in 2021, a major milestone in opening up the country's telecom sector, previously dominated by state-owned Ethio Telecom.
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The licence, awarded to a consortium including Vodafone, Vodacom, Sumitomo Corporation, and British International Investment, enabled Safaricom Ethiopia to launch commercial operations in October 2022.
Since then, the investment has been increasingly growing, with revenue more than tripling to 7.2 billion birr in the fiscal year ending March 2025, up from 1.9 billion birr the previous year.
The telco's customer base has also grown to 8.8 million, including 7.1 million active data users, according to the company.
"This afternoon, the GPE and Safaricom Ethiopia Advisory Board meeting brought with it an important moment of leadership transition and new beginnings," said Safaricom Telecommunications Ethiopia in a statement.
"We bid farewell to Michael Joseph as chairman of the Global Partnership for Ethiopia (GPE) Board and the Safaricom Ethiopia Advisory Board, a visionary leader whose impact has been foundational to our journey."
GPE board
Additionally, Safaricom handpicked Ethiopian Ermias Eshetuto to join the GPE board, the same advisory board that Ndegwa will now run.
Ndegwa took over as CEO of Safaricom on April 1, 2020, becoming the first Kenyan to lead the company.
Since then, he has overseen Safaricom's entry into the Ethiopian market, including the launch of M-PESA and helped expand the customer base across the region.
In the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025, Safaricom recorded an 11.2 per cent growth in total revenue to Sh388.7 billion ($3 billion), with net income also accelerating by 10.8 per cent to hit Sh69.8 billion.
The performance saw the telco Safaricom pay out Sh48.08 billion in dividends to its shareholders for the year, adding a final dividend of 65 cents per ordinary share to the interim dividend of 55 cents per ordinary share already paid out in March 2025.
The telco attributed the performance to sustained innovation across the TechCo's product portfolio and expansion into Ethiopia.
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