A New Dawn For Safaricom As Peter Ndegwa Assumes The CEO Role

51 year old Mr Peter Ndegwa, reports to work at the helm of Safaricom on this first day of April 2020, becoming the first Kenyan to run the East Africa’s giant telco company, taking over at a time when the economy is starting to feel the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak.

Ndegwa’s appointment as the company’s Chief Executive Officer was done by Safaricom PLC Board of Directors in October 2019.

He joins Safaricom from Diageo PLC where he is the Managing Director of Diageo Continental Europe and brings a wealth of experience in General Management, Commercial and Business Strategy, Sales and Finance Operations, having spent over 25 years in various roles within the Financial Services and Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sectors in Africa and Europe.

“There are two things that I value most; humility and integrity. Integrity is about doing what you say and humility is knowing that there is always something more you can do,” Ndegwa said to the media. Adding; “It is time to serve my country.”

He previously served for seven years as CEO in Guinness Nigeria PLC and Guinness Ghana Breweries PLC, where he transformed the two operations to deliver a double- digit growth by investing in people, introducing new brands and reorganising the businesses.

Prior to that, Peter served for eight years across a range of senior Executive Director roles at EABL (a Diageo subsidiary) based in Nairobi. Serving as the Group Chief Finance Officer (CFO), Group Strategy Director, Sales Director, and as an Executive Director on the EABL Board, he was part of the team that saw the EABL business more than doubled in value – and winning the coveted Most Respected Business Award in East Africa for five years in a row.

Peter is credited with the development of an affordable-beer strategy for EABL resulting in the production of new brands such as Senator beer. Senator beer became one of the most successful innovations by Diageo that has been featured in the Harvard Business Review. He started his career at PwC, the global consulting firm, where he worked for 11 years.

Furthermore, he holds an MBA from the London Business School and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Nairobi. He is also a Certified Public Accountant and a member of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK).

Safaricom is confident that Peter will carry on the company vision of transforming lives whilst focusing on meeting customers’ needs and holding the company to their new commitment of being Simple, transparent and honest.