Safaricom CEO,Bob Collymore’s contract has been extended by another two years. Collymore took over from Michael Joseph, the founding Safaricom CEO in August 2010. As the company’s CEO, he has seen the company grow enormously reaping more revenue and high profits in the Kenyan market. He was to serve an initial contract of three years which was renewed for a further two years in 2013.
Safaricom Chairman, Nicholas Ng’ang’a said the board made the decision to let Collymore continue steering the company’s growth. “He has successfully navigated the company through very difficult times,” Ng’ang’a said on Thursday when the company announced its 2016 financial results.
He has managed to sustain revenue and profitability growth at Safaricom. He has seen the company through some tough times and good ones too. For example, Safaricom, on Wednesday, posted a Sh45.1 billion net profit in the year ended March 31, 2017 representing an 18.3 per cent increase from the previous year.
Safaricom is currently a market leader in both voice and data, controlling over 70% of market share, followed by Airtel Kenya. According to Communications Authority figures for the last quarter of 2016, Safaricom’s market share hit 71.2%.
Safaricom recorded the highest number of mobile subscriptions as of December 31, 2016, gaining 2.2 percentage points of the market share up from 69.0 per cent posted in the last quarter.
The board further extended his contract for two more years in August 2015. His tenure was due to end in August 2017 but Collymore has secured yet another two-years. This means he will head safaricom till August 2019.