Safaricom CEO to retire by end of 2010

After ten years as the head of Kenyan operator Safaricom, Michael Joseph plans to retire by the end of the year.

“I am planning to retire sometime in 2010, that’s my intention”, said CEO Michael Joseph to Reuters reporters.

Joseph told the reporters he planned his exit from Safaricom last year, but he delayed on reasons of wrong timing.

Safaricom is East Africa’s biggest company by market capitalization. The company is currently focusing on providing more data and money transfer services (M-Pesa) to its subscribers.

According to Joseph, the company expects data services to become 25% of Safaricom’s revenue in the next two years.