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Ex-CCK chief named chair of Equity Bank telecoms arm [Business Daily (Kenya)]
[May 26, 2014]

Ex-CCK chief named chair of Equity Bank telecoms arm [Business Daily (Kenya)]


(Business Daily (Kenya) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) John Waweru, the former Communications Commission of Kenya boss has been appointed by Equity Bank to chair Finserve, its subsidiary for mobile phone-based banking and voice services in July.



Mr Waweru, who holds a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from University of Nairobi, will head the Finserve board.

James Mwangi, the Equity Bank  CEO, said Mr Waweru will work with the bank's team that put the Mobile Virtual Network Operations infrastructure in place.


It was during his tenure at CCK that the unified licensing regime that gave birth to Applications Service Provider ASP under which Equity was licensed as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) was created.

MVNO comes with a license fee requirement of Sh100,000 and enables an entity to offer services such as customer registration, SIM card issuance, billing and customer care to end users without holding a spectrum licence.

Other than Finserve, which the telecoms regulator licensed as an MVNO in April, other providers includes Mobile Pay Limited, owned by Tangaza money and ZionCell.

This means that the three firms will ride on the existing infrastructure of the mobile operators at a fee to offer their services.

"John Waweru the former CCK director general is joining Finserve as an executive chair and will work with a management team that has helped put the infrastructure in place," said Mr Mwangi.

This team has, among others, John Staley, the bank's chief officer (finance and technology), Julius Kipng'etich, the chief operating officer, Raphael Hukai, chief information officer , Allan Waititu, director special projects, and Enrico Nora, executive director for mobile innovations.

"We want to roll out the MVNO with a military precision and discipline. This will be made possible by the people we have in the team" added Mr Mwangi.

The new licences are expected to promote competition in the telecommunications sector.

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