Mr Nga’ng’a joined the Safaricom board in 2004 as a non-executive director and was appointed chairman 3 years later. He is credited with steering the giant telecom through various milestones among them the rapid network development in the country, diversity and inclusion at the telco, and growing the company's fortunes.

Current Safaricom CEO, Peter Ndegwa, lauded Mr Ng’ang’a’s contribution to the telco saying he helped grow the company’s shareholder value.

"Mr Ng'ang'a took up the leadership reins at a time when the government was starting the process of offering 25 percent of its shares to the public through the Nairobi Securities Exchange in 2008. He has managed to grow shareholder value by 607 percent since listing," said Mr Ndegwa.

Incoming chairman, Michael Joseph, also served as CEO in acting capacity for a short while after the death of Bob Collymore in July 2019. Mr Ndegwa was picked to replace Collymore from April this year.

Mr Joseph was the CEO of Safaricom Limited from July 2000 when the company was re-launched as a joint-venture between Vodafone UK and Telkom Kenya until his retirement in November 2010.

He will maintain his role at Kenya Airways despite his new appointment.