Mugo Kibati Writes Telkom’s New Chapter: Focusing On A Future That Delivers

In 2018, Telkom’s leadership decided to go down a path that few have dared to take. For us to rejuvenate our business, we proposed to merge synergies with Airtel Networks Kenya, hoping to create a robust second telco player in the market with enhanced scale and efficiency, that would, in the mid to long-term, progressively stimulate competition back into a skewed industry.

More than a year after the parties to the proposed joint venture went public with the intended transaction, the need arose to assess progress and viability given the challenges that the deal continued to face, as well as the fast-changing dynamics that have characterised the larger part of 2020. As Telkom, we had continued to regularly evaluate alternative strategic options to strengthen our position and offering within the market.

After carefully reviewing these options, the Telkom team on 5 August 2020, made it known that the brand we have committed to build and grow was reimagining its future. We set out a bold and new direction against a backdrop of a story of resilience over the past decade. A company that has worked hard, despite the unique set of challenges in our path, to keep on serving our customers. We also took a mutual decision with Airtel to no longer pursue the joint venture.

Given our vast infrastructure asset base, expansive terrestrial fibre, and our 4G network, we are confident the accelerated digital transformation will propel this new proposition. One that has both businesses and individuals increasingly aware of the need to change how we do things. This digital transformation is particularly crucial within the telecommunications sector, creating an increased demand for broadband, connectivity, and digital platforms, by the individual consumer, corporates, and the public sector.

We are now providing service to you, the customer, under new Service Delivery Units, Telkom Consumer and Telkom Digital. We are also creating new career growth opportunities for our employees, who we will be investing in further, to develop updated skills to enable them to deliver our new strategic direction.

This business restructuring will also enable us to sharpen our efficiencies while introducing innovative products and solutions and enhancing service provision and overall customer experience. The end game for us – and our key focus – is to become the technology partner of choice for our consumers, private and public sector clients.

All in our market remain aware, nonetheless, that without proper regulation, innovation that aims to benefit the consumer will often be hampered due to artificially erected barriers. The need, therefore, to implement market-wide regulations is still urgent, if we are to see Kenya’s communications sector fulfil its potential.

Under the vigilance of progressive regulators, all consumers in the market, alongside other stakeholders, benefit from this desired level of competition through more accessible price points, a wider variety of products and solutions, and enhanced tax revenues.

However, to be clear, in as much as Telkom shall never shy away from making factual statements on the state of our market and presenting our views, we shall not prescribe actions that should be taken by other stakeholders, whether they be regulators or competitors, nor are we putting our plans on hold waiting for the perfect competitive environment. We are firmly moving forward, focused on, and energised by, the exciting new prospects of the decade to come.

All in our market remain aware, nonetheless, that without proper regulation, innovation that aims to benefit the consumer will often be hampered due to artificially erected barriers. The need, therefore, to implement market-wide regulations is still urgent, if we are to see Kenya’s communications sector fulfil its potential.

As Joy Page put it, “instead of focusing on circumstances you cannot change, focus strongly and powerfully on the circumstances that you can.” We are investing in innovative technologies and approaches that will create more value for our customers. We are enhancing our financial services offering to better reflect current customer needs, concerning increased security, simplicity, availability and reliability.

In addition, we are working with developers and other technology solution entities to deploy services and solutions as we digitise our products and customer service channels to simplify the customer journey.

We are also driving digital transformation by enabling public and private sector players to become smart entities, providing them with solution design, hosting and managed services, as well as other strategic post-implementation support and operational services. We will also be incubating our future cloud business, intending to provide a carrier-neutral experience.

For Telkom to start telling its new story, we are putting a firm close to the last chapter of the old narrative, often burdened by speculative sensationalist coverage, and a petty and zero-sum perspective that holds no place in our future.

Instead, based on a deeply rooted belief that a rising tide lifts all boats, we welcome all our stakeholders to keep moving with us. We also invite members of the Fourth Estate, who have the noble role of accurately conveying stories to the public, to join us in the amplification of our future message. It should make for an exciting read and narration. The team at Telkom has turned the page and is moving forward, focusing on what is ahead of us – our future actions that will produce benefits for all in the ecosystem. Join us.