Mungania Lands M-PESA Job He Has Twice Held In An Acting Capacity

Safaricom has appointed Boniface Mungania as Chief Financial Services Officer, confirming him in a permanent role he has twice occupied in an acting capacity.

The appointment, effective November 1, was announced on Friday after the company received the necessary regulatory approvals.

“We are pleased to announce the appointment of Boniface Mungania, OGW as Chief Financial Services Officer, effective 1st November 2026,” Safaricom said in a statement.

Mungania reports to Group CEO Peter Ndegwa and takes charge of M-PESA, the company’s largest growth engine. In the financial year to March 2026, M-PESA revenue grew 13.4 per cent and accounted for 45.6 per cent of Safaricom’s revenue mix. It contributed 59.2 per cent of the growth in total service revenue.

The appointment formalises an arrangement that has been in place since July, when Mungania returned to the position on an interim basis following the departure of his predecessor, Esther Waititu.

Twice the caretaker

Mungania first served as acting Chief Financial Services Officer from mid-2022 until February 2023, when Safaricom appointed Waititu, a career banker from KCB Bank.

Waititu resigned in July 2026 and left the company at the end of that month. Mungania then stepped in for a second time, leading the division until his permanent appointment.

His confirmation gives the role to an executive who has spent nearly two decades at Safaricom, having joined in 2007 as a customer care representative.

Since then, he has held several leadership positions, including Head of M-PESA Products and Services Development, Payments Tribe Lead and Director of Public Sector Digital Transformation.

In the latter role, he led national digital transformation initiatives across agriculture, healthcare, small and medium-sized enterprises and public finance, according to Safaricom.

The company said he brings “close to two decades of experience across financial services, digital transformation, customer care and business development.”

The business behind the title

The Chief Financial Services Officer role should not be confused with that of the company’s finance chief. It oversees M-PESA and its growing portfolio of financial products, including the Fuliza overdraft service, M-Shwari, KCB M-PESA savings and lending, and Ziidi, Safaricom’s investment product.

The division has become central to Safaricom’s financial performance as traditional telecommunications services mature.

In the financial year to March 2026, M-PESA revenue grew 13.4 per cent and accounted for 45.6 per cent of the company’s revenue mix. It generated 59.2 per cent of total service revenue growth, while voice revenue increased by just 1.3 per cent.

Safaricom’s Kenya service revenue exceeded $3.1 billion (KES 400 billion), an increase of 10 per cent. Group net income attributable to shareholders reached a record $775 million (KES 100 billion), up 67.3 per cent.

The figures underline the importance of Mungania’s portfolio. Nearly six in every ten shillings of new service revenue came from M-PESA, making the division a major driver of the company’s growth.

Part of a wider leadership reshuffle

Mungania’s confirmation comes amid broader changes to Safaricom’s senior leadership.

Samuel Munyua was appointed Chief Finance Officer of Safaricom Telecommunications Ethiopia, also effective November 1. He previously served as Safaricom Group Financial Controller, having joined the Kenyan business in 2021. His career spans more than two decades in finance, including roles at KCB Bank and Barclays Bank Kenya.

In August, Caroline Wambugu was appointed Group Lead for Finance Controls, Performance and Investor Relations. Her expanded remit covers financial controlling, reporting, tax, treasury, shared services and credit collections.

That same month, Mariam Cassim, who leads Vodacom’s fintech business, and Matimba Mbungela, Vodacom’s Chief Human Resources Officer, joined the Safaricom board as non-executive directors. They replaced James Ludlow and John Kipngetich Mosonik.

Waititu’s departure in July was among several senior exits at Safaricom during the year.

The case for an internal appointment

Safaricom has taken different approaches to filling the financial services leadership position. In 2023, it recruited Waititu from outside the company, bringing in a banking executive to lead a business that had grown well beyond its telecommunications origins.

This time, it has chosen an internal candidate with extensive experience in the products and systems that underpin M-PESA.

An external appointment can bring banking and regulated-finance expertise to a mobile money business increasingly competing across financial services. An internal promotion offers institutional knowledge of a platform whose complexity is best understood by the teams that have built and managed it.

Mungania brings both product experience and leadership continuity. He has worked on M-PESA products for much of his career and has twice led the division in an acting capacity. His appointment comes as the business carries a growing share of Safaricom’s revenue expansion.

What to watch

Three areas will indicate the direction Mungania takes.

First, whether M-PESA can sustain double-digit revenue growth in Safaricom’s half-year and full-year results. The group’s performance is increasingly tied to the division’s ability to maintain that momentum.

Second, how Safaricom develops its lending and investment products, including Fuliza, M-Shwari, KCB M-PESA and Ziidi. Changes to their pricing, reach and product structure could shape the next phase of M-PESA’s growth.

Third, whether the public sector digital transformation work Mungania previously led becomes more closely integrated with the financial services division. Such a move could point to new opportunities for revenue growth beyond traditional mobile money transactions.