Safaricom’s executive in charge of the M-Pesa, Ms Betty Mwangi-Thuo, is set to quit the telecommunications company at the end of the month. Ms Mwangi – the director in charge of financial services at Safaricom – is leaving after nearly a decade, having steered M-Pesa to a significant revenue of the business over the years.
“I would like to announce the departure of Betty Mwangi, director – financial services, who leaves the company to pursue personal interests,” said Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore in an internal staff memo dated March 7th. “Please join me in wishing Betty well as she transitions to the next phase in her career.”
It’s not clear why Mrs Mwangi-Thuo has quit at a time M-Pesa is at its peak. She will be succeeded by Brian Wamatu, currently head of M-Pesa product development, in an acting capacity pending fresh recruitment to fill the position.
Ms Mwangi-Thuo joined Safaricom in December 2007 as the head of new products division – comprising M-Pesa business and GSMA community projects. She was promoted to chief officer in charge of the division in October 2008, with the additional responsibility for Safaricom’s value added services such as ring-back service Skiza, bulk SMS solutions, short codes, directory services and news alerts.
In 2012, the techie was appointed general manager of financial services – the title later changed to director – when she took charge of M-Pesa operations. Ms Mwangi presided over Safaricom’s mobile money division at a time when M-Pesa was on the growth curve and launched multiple products to deepen uptake of the service.
Safaricom’s M-Pesa-linked commuter card dubbed My 1963 launched in 2014 has however failed to take root in Kenya’s chaotic matatu industry.
M-Pesa revenue doubled under Ms Mwangi’s watch to hit Sh32.63 billion in the period to March 2015, compared to Sh16.87 in March 2012.
Similarly, M-Pesa’s agent footprint grew two-fold to 85,756 agents compared to 39,400 mobile cash outlets in the period.
The globally acclaimed mobile money service is now a key growth driver at Safaricom, making up a fifth of its revenue in the year to March 2015.
The ratio of Safaricom customers topping up their airtime through M-Pesa grew to 38 per cent of total airtime sales as at March 2015, compared to 22 per cent in March 2011.
M-Pesa’s customer base has grown by more than a third in the past four years to the current 20.6 million from 14.9 million in 2012.
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