Michael Joseph has notified Vodafone of his intention to relinquish the position as part of plans to disengage from all his full-time roles with the UK telecommunications giant.
He was appointed Vodafone’s director of mobile money in 2011, in the British firm’s bid to replicate M-Pesa’s success in Kenya in other countries where it was being rolled out.
Michael Joseph is set to step down as Vodafone’s director of mobile money at the end of September, marking the end of an era for the former Safaricom #ticker:SCOM chief executive who put M-Pesa on the global map.
Mr Joseph, who last year was appointed Kenya Airways #ticker:KQ chairman, has notified Vodafone of his intention to relinquish the position as part of plans to disengage from all his full-time roles with the UK telecommunications giant that owns 40 per cent shares of Safaricom.
He was appointed Vodafone’s director of mobile money in 2011, in the British firm’s bid to replicate M-Pesa’s success in Kenya in other countries where it was being rolled out.
The 71-year-old’s departure from Vodafone comes at a time when the British firm is selling its 35 per cent stake in Safaricom to its South African subsidiary Vodacom, paving the way for M-Pesa’s expansion in Africa.
“The plan is to fully step down from Vodafone and its companies towards the end of this year,” Mr Joseph told Business Daily in an interview in April.
Mr Joseph is relinquishing his director positions to concentrate on his duties at KQ – which is undergoing restructuring -- and also slow down his active roles after decades of high pressure jobs in the corporate world.
He is also set to surrender his non-executive director positions at Vodafone’s African subsidiaries — Vodacom Mozambique, Vodacom Tanzania and Vodacom Group South Africa.
“I have been working for a long time and I think it’s time to slow down a bit,” he said.
Mr Joseph, who is also a director at Safaricom, left his CEO position in November 2011 after more than a decade at the helm.
Vodafone then tapped him to head its global mobile money business including expanding it to countries such as Denmark, Albania, Ghana and India.
The British telecom offers M-Pesa services in 10 countries: Albania, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Egypt, Ghana, India, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, Romania and Tanzania.
The Sh266.6 billion share swap between Vodafone and Vodacom will bring to an end a clause that barred Safaricom from venturing outside Kenya.
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