Peter Ndegwa, CEO, Safaricom

Peter Ndegwa is the CEO, Safaricom PLC, a leading communications company in Africa and pioneer of M-PESA, the world’s most developed mobile payment system.

He has 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 (PricewaterhouseCoopers) and Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sectors (Diageo PLC) across Africa, Middle East, Russia and Europe.

Peter is a passionate believer of the power of education in empowering individuals and draws his inspiration from his teachers, the legendary Dr Geoffrey Griffin – the late founder of Starehe Boys Centre- his alma mater, and his parents, especially his mother.

He is a board member of the Global Compact Network Kenya which is the Kenyan network of the United Nations Global Compact, a strategic policy initiative for businesses that are committed to aligning their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption.

Peter is also a founder trustee of the Safaricom Foundation and a trustee of the M-PESA Foundation, two of the largest corporate Foundations in Kenya which focus on building communities and transforming lives.

Peter is passionate about technology as having the potential to address many of the society needs and a great tool to address inequality especially in developing countries. He is spearheading a strategic shift within Safaricom to a new vision of a purpose-led technology company and committing the company to become a customer obsessed, digital first organization.

This has also seen him lead Safaricom to expand outside Kenya setting up Safaricom Telecommunications Ethiopia, with a vision of using new technology to bring about transformational economic and social impact to the more than 112 million Ethiopians.