Captains of industry reflect on 2022, set goals for 2023

Business leaders, investors and Captains of Industry are expressing cautious optimism for their future growth prospects after the year 2022 presented a mixed bag of fortunes for various sectors of the economy.

Although 2022 was a breakthrough year for some companies, many steered through volatile and uncertain economic and financial environment characterised by General Elections, onset of Russia/Ukraine war, persistently high inflation as well as the ongoing drought situation in the country. This elevated pressure on consumer spending hence, creating a tough operating environment for many businesses.

However, Safaricom demonstrated resilience and agility for sustainable, inclusive growth.  Safaricom CEO, Peter Ndegwa says although regulatory guidelines such as Mobile Termination Rate (MTR) and other taxations measures affected the telco’s performance, overall, it delivered a solid set of results.

“Our growth agenda was more pronounced during the year with the commercial launch of Safaricom Telecommunications Ethiopia, a subsidiary of Safaricom Plc,” he adds.

“Together with our Global Partnership for Ethiopia (GPE) including Vodafone, Vodacom, British International Investment, and Sumitomo Corporation, we look forward to positively impacting the people of Ethiopia with a sustainable and quality mobile network that will be a vital launch pad for nationwide digital telecommunications services to over 118 million Ethiopians.”

Additionally, Ndegwa says Safaricom hopes that upon acquiring an M-Pesa license, it will be instrumental in facilitating economic freedom as well as entrenching financial inclusion for the people of Ethiopia while also leveraging mobile money for growth opportunities.

Sustainable solutions

“I believe our continuous pursuit of sustainable solutions for our customers and our business transformation strategy has repositioned the business for value creation and strategic growth in the New Year, 2023,”

East African Breweries Plc (EABL) Group Managing director and CEO Jane Karuku sums as the year 2022 as “momentous,” saying it was the year the regional brewer marked its centenary anniversary, celebrating a century of impacting society and contributing to the economic development of East Africa.

She says EABL also took time to reflect on the unique connection it has had with its stakeholders over the years.  “This was 100 years of creating a value chain that extends from the farmers who grow the barley and sorghum we use as raw materials, to transporters, distributors, retailers, our direct and indirect employees, and the people who serve the consumer at the table.”

Going into 2023, Karuku adds, the brewer seeks to continue setting the pace in supporting innovation and good governance practices.

“It is our innovation and resilience that enabled us to overcome some of the world’s biggest disruptions like the Covid-19 disruption: creating new formats, building our e-commerce capability and driving last-mile distribution at scale.”

During the year 2022, KCB Group established itself as the bank of the future by consolidating operations across the East African region.

The twin acquisitions of Banque Populaire du Rwanda (BPR) and Trust Merchant Bank (TMB) in DRC presented the lender with an opportunity to scale its regional operations in East and Central Africa. KCB Group CEO Paul Russo says creating strategic business linkages between the different East African nations will continue to feature prominently and will be supported by closer co-operation with regulatory bodies to create stable macro-economic policies.  “The bank will also spearhead the adoption of climate financing practices, digitalisation and innovation, green banking, and the advancement of the people’s agenda,” he adds. The year 2022 presented Mozilla Corporation with an opportunity to re-enter Africa through Kenya and support its internet democratisation efforts.

Alice Munyua, Senior Director, Africa Innovation Mradi Mozilla Corporation says through Africa Mradi programme, the company is targeting the next billion of internet users who are likely to come from this continent. “Mradi’s approach is to build with, not for, and in 2023 our main focus will be to catalyse co-creation with and for communities in the African region to help solve local problems,” she adds.

The company also intends to invest in new product ideas through Mozilla Venture in line with the government’s agenda on empowering the youth through MSMEs.  “We expect to work with various partners including government agencies to actualise this dream” adds Munyua. Chris Flowers, Kakuzi Plc managing director says the year 2022 goes down as a historic one for the company, noting that this was the year it first exported quality Hass Avocado fruits to the lucrative Chinese market, becoming the first African avocados to enter the East Asian country.  

“It is also the year that Kakuzi stepped up efforts to expand its Avocado export markets beyond Europe and China to Malaysia,” he adds, stating that the potential to grow the Chinese market demand is enormous if the country can maintain the highest quality standards for its exports.

Fresh avocados

“Our 2023 focus is to explore and diversify our export beyond Europe and China and introduce several value-added products. We have an excellent range of quality locally-grown fresh avocados, and the world needs to discover and enjoy more of our fruit.”  For Diamond Trust Bank (DTB) Group CEO Nasim Devji, 2022 was a relatively good year which saw the institution accelerate the rollout of its new customer-centric growth strategy.

“This strategy places the customer at the heart of all our decision-making and will see us expand our market presence. Our branch expansion programme started in 2022 and will continue through 2023, adding 40 more branches to the network,” she adds.