The hunt for mobile money has gone a notch higher with Safaricom hiring Ron Webb as the Director – Financial Services. The appointment which took effect immediately is aimed at deepening mobile money market in the economy whose main rival is cash.
In his new role, Mr. Webb will be expected to provide overall leadership for Safaricom’s financial services portfolio, which includes the mobile money transfer service M-Pesa as it approaches its tenth year of operation.
Mr. Webb, a seasoned finance and technology professional who joined the telco from Equity Bank where he was the leader of a newly created directorate of payments within the bank, responsible for driving innovation in the payments space. Prior to that post, Mr. Webb was Group Technology Officer at the Paynet/PesaPoint Group for 18 years.
“Ron is passionate about the ability of Digital Financial Services to transform lives though Financial Inclusion. This vision aligns very closely with our aspiration to create transformative mobile solutions for Kenya and to deepen the use of financial services as they continue to evolve,” said Bob Collymore, CEO, Safaricom.
As a trained technology professional, a statement from the company said that Mr. Webb is adept at overseeing the development of new payment solutions from conceptualization to implementation and successful operation.
Born in Zimbabwe, Mr. Webb has thirty years of experience in the fast-evolving African payments space, having implemented systems and strategy for technologies ranging from the cheque to mobile in a number of markets.
He will be tasked with conceptualizing, creating and growing the company’s growing mobile payments ecosystem to ensure market leadership, while meeting customer requirements.
Mr. Ronald Webb will also be responsible for ensuring optimal financial performance of the Division, assuring credit quality, managing business development opportunities, ensuring regulatory compliance and mitigating potential risk.
