Safaricom has found its answer to the vacancy left by Esther Waititu’s resignation, at least for now.
Boniface Mungania, currently Director of Public Sector Digital Transformation, will step in as interim Chief Financial Services Officer, taking over a division that anchors both M-Pesa’s revenue and Safaricom’s push into financial inclusion.
The appointment keeps the role inside a small circle of executives who have shaped M-Pesa’s growth from the ground up, rather than bringing in an outsider during a period of leadership turnover at the top of the company.
A Career Built Inside M-Pesa
Mungania describes himself as experienced in digital product management, business development, project management, and sales, and positions himself as a thought leader in digital financial services. That description tracks with a career spent almost entirely inside the platform he is now set to help lead.
He joined Safaricom in February 2007 as a Customer Service Representative, moving into a Dealer Manager role within a year. His shift into financial services came in 2011, when he took on M-Pesa business development roles that would define the next decade of his career. Over the following years, he held titles including Business Development Manager for M-Pesa, Senior Manager for M-Pesa Business Development, and Head of M-Pesa Product Management, a post he held for close to five years between 2016 and 2021.
In April 2021, Safaricom named him Head, or Tribe Lead, of M-Pesa Payments, before promoting him to Acting Chief Digital Financial Services Officer in June 2022, a role he held for ten months. He moved into his current post, Director of Public Sector Digital Transformation, in April 2023, a role focused on extending digital services into government facing platforms. Along the way, he spent eight months in 2016 as a Mobile Money Consultant for Vodafone in Qatar, giving him a brief window of experience outside the Kenyan market before returning to Nairobi.
In total, Mungania has spent more than 19 years at Safaricom, a tenure that spans nearly the entire commercial life of M-Pesa itself, from its early growth phase through its evolution into the full financial ecosystem Waititu leaves behind.
Why The Choice Makes Sense
Handing the interim role to Mungania rather than an external hire signals that Safaricom wants continuity while it runs a fuller search for a permanent successor. Few executives at the company have touched as many parts of M-Pesa’s business as he has, from dealer management and business development to product design and, more recently, digital government services.
His stint as Acting Chief Digital Financial Services Officer in 2022 already gave him a preview of the responsibilities he now takes on again, this time as the division navigates a period of double digit revenue growth alongside rising competition in Kenya’s digital payments space.
Safaricom has not indicated how long the interim arrangement will last or whether Mungania is a candidate for the permanent role. For now, the appointment buys the company time to manage a leadership transition without disrupting momentum at the unit driving its largest share of revenue.
