Michael Joseph Appointed As Safaricom Chairperson

By ABN Staff July 30, 2020

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Safaricom has picked its former CEO Michael Joseph as its new board chair effective August 1, 2020, even as he retains his position as Kenya Airways chair.

Joseph replaces Nicholas Ng’ang’a who has retired after being at the helm of the board for a period of 13 years.

Ng’ang’a took up the leadership reins at a time when the government was starting the process of offering 25% of its shares to the public through the Nairobi Securities Exchange in 2008. He has managed to grow shareholder value by 607% since listing. Safaricom market capitalization at KES 1.075 trillion is worth 50% of all the listed firms on the NSE.

Ng’anga’s commitment has seen the staff gender distribution stand at 51% women and 49% men whilst in management we have 35% women and 65% men. Safaricom now has 131 staff with various disabilities representing about 2.4% of the staff population. Out of this, 53% are women and 47% are men.

The telco’s Chief Executive Office Peter Ndegwa in a statement announced that Joseph will have the mandate of handling customer sentiment, greater brand consideration, and bolster the firm’s digital transformation agenda.

“He brings a wealth of skills and industry knowledge given his contribution to the growth of Safaricom from very humble beginnings to becoming one of the most innovative, influential and profitable companies in the East African region,” Ndegwa said.

Joseph was the firm’s first Chief Executive Officer, a position he took up in July 2000 when the company was re-launched as a joint venture between Vodafone UK and Telkom Kenya.

He joined the firm’s board on September 8, 2008.

Under his leadership as CEO, Joseph steered the company from a subscriber base of less than 20,000 to over 16.71 million subscribers.

Last year, Joseph resumed the CEO position, but under an interim capacity, after the death of his successor Bob Collymore.

Currently, Joseph is the Kenya Airways board chair and is also Vodafone’s Strategic Advisor, appointed to the Boards of Vodacom Group South Africa, Vodacom Tanzania and Vodacom Mozambique.