As President Uhuru Kenyatta prepares to name the list of new Principal Secretaries, Safaricom chief executive officer, Bob Collymore has rooted for the appointment of outgoing Information and Communication Permanent Secretary Bitange Ndemo for the position. Collymore said Ndemo is best suited to run the ministry as a principal secretary since during his reign the country’s ICT sector has witnessed remarkable transformation.
“It will be a big shame if Ndemo does not get the appointment seeing his contribution to the industry is remarkable,” Collymore told K24 television in an interview. Safaricom is one of only two ICT firms listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange – the other being AccessKenya – and is the biggest on the exchange by market capitalisation standing at around Sh290 billion.
The firm on Tuesday announced a record Sh17.5 billion net profit for the year ending March 31. As the PS in the ICT ministry, Ndemo is widely credited with overseeing varied implementation of ICT projects in the country including the Sh850 billion Konza Technology City. Developing demand Ndemo has also been involved in initiatives to lower the cost of accessing ICTs (connectivity, hardware and software) in Kenya and the region.
His priority has been to connect East Africa to the rest of the world through the undersea fibre optic cable. Ndemo has been at the forefront of developing the demand side of ICTs by actively promoting business process outsourcing in both urban and rural areas. Under his reign the ICT sector has continued to register strong growth with the mobile subscriber base rising to 30 million and the number of mobile money transfer subscribers now at over 17 million.
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