After 23 years in executive and board roles at Safaricom Plc, Michael Joseph has resigned as a director, the latest high-profile exit from East Africa’s most profitable firm.
Mr Joseph, who described himself on Wednesday in his first exit interview as ‘not a good board material’, dismissed speculation that he was forced out of the Safaricom board.
“There is a new chairman, new board members and maybe this is a good time to step down. I am not really a good board material, I am a CEO type of person, I like being in charge,” Mr Joseph told the Business Daily.
“I am not the kind of person that likes to take direction or waits for guidance and as a director, I feel a little restrained.”
Mr Joseph, who was speaking in a virtual interview from London, sought to explain that his resignation was mainly to free up time to concentrate on the firm’s Ethiopia subsidiary where he still holds the position of the board chair and an advisor to the Safaricom Ethiopia CEO.
The 77-year-old resigned from the Safaricom Plc board effective August 1, 2023, having served as founding CEO (2000 – 2010); interim CEO following the death of Bob Collymore (July 2019 – March 2020) as well as a board chairman and board director.
Mr Joseph said President William Ruto, the telco’s new Chairman Adil Khawaja and CEO Peter Ndegwa asked him to stay on but he chose to exit.
“I was definitely not forced out, that is for sure. It was my own choice and the chairman, the CEO, other board members and the government wanted me to stay longer for sure. I notified the President out of courtesy,” Mr Joseph said.
“There’s never a right time to leave a company of this nature especially given my involvement with the company from the very beginning and I could stay on for another 10 years, to be honest. But I just think that at some point your value diminishes. I am not a great board person, I can do a lot more off the board than on it. Forcing me out of Safaricom would take a lot more than this.”
Mr Joseph exits exactly one year after he stepped down as the telco’s board chairman, to clear the way for John Ngumi, who resigned in January after a five-month stint.
His exit comes at a time when there have been multiple changes on the firm’s board. Mr Khawaja was elected chairman in January 2023 while Ory Okolloh and Karen Kandie were appointed to the board as an independent director and alternate director to the Treasury Cabinet Secretary, respectively, in February.
“The timing of it because I am quite heavily involved in Safaricom Ethiopia and I am still chairman of the three Ethiopia companies (the Holding Company, Voda Family Company, and the Safaricom Ethiopia Company and I am also an advisor to the CEO of Ethiopia and that takes a lot of my time. Being off the main board gives me a little more time to concentrate on Ethiopia,” Mr Michael said.
The listed telco, he said, now needs stronger board participation as far as the strategy and commercial prospects of the business are concerned.
He attributed the subdued earnings in the recent past primarily to risks from the Ethiopia expansion and not the underlying fundamentals of the business.
“When I stepped down as chairman, I became a nominated director of Vodacom and so I represented Vodacom on the board so my replacement will certainly come from Vodacom,” Mr Joseph said.
“Hopefully it will be somebody that brings a broader view about strategy and where the mobile industry is going in general and also to bring on board commercial experience. Board members are there for strategy and governance, not to tell management how to operate.”
