Safaricom says it will not create an acting CEO position in the absence of Bob Collymore who recently took prolonged leave due to health issues.

Speaking at the announcement of the half-year results for 2017/2018 financial year, Safaricom Chairman Nicholas Ng'ang'a said that Joe Ogutu, Director, Strategy and Innovation, and Sateesh Kamath, Chief Financial Officer will drive the company forward.

"Bob is on leave, let's first start with that. We see that this is exactly like when Bob would ask for a normal leave," he said. "The question of us deciding on how his functions would be done did not bring up the need of putting up an acting CEO."

"We do not see any particular reasons for an acting position," Ng'ang'a confirmed. "The leaders (Ogutu and Kamath) are going to share the CEO responsibilities in a clear manner."

"In our statement we said that Sateesh would assume the primary role. For us this meant that if there are issues from outside that concern stakeholders and issues that have to pass through the board, Sateesh would be responsible on that," Ng'ang'a explained.

Ng'ang'a also requested that stakeholders respect Collymore's privacy as he receives treatment.

The company announced that overall revenue stood at Kshs 109.73bn, a growth of 12.0% and recorded strong growth in their data and mobile money sectors. Net income stood at 26.2bn, up from last year's 21.6bn.

"M-Pesa revenue recorded a growth of 16.2% to Kshs 30.05bn driven by 9.5% increase in 30-day active M-Pesa customers to 19.3m," the company said. "Mobile data revenue, which accounts for 16.0% of our service revenue, grew at 31.0% to Kshs 17.55bn. This was driven by 13.5% growth in 30 day active mobile data customers to 16.9m."

Safaricom's customer base also increased by 10.8% to 29.5m.

The company added that it will continue to grow its data business by installing new 4G sites to add to its total of 1,450 sites and their Fibre to the Home (FTTH), which has passed 90,000 homes (potential connections) and converted 28,000 subscribers. Safaricom fibre coverage currently stands at 4,700 kilometres.

The company is also in its final phase to launch their ecommerce product Masoko, expected to go live in mid-November. The company has already stocked 30,000 SKUs and enlisted 200 merchants.