Safaricom head of innovation resigns

Kamal Bhattacharya, the head of Safaricom’s innovation lab, has left Kenya’s biggest telecoms company less than a year and a half after he joined.

The former long-serving IBM executive left last month after leading Safaricom’s Alpha innovation unit since April last year.

Mr Bhattacharya told Reuters he had left to focus on a technology start-up involving the education sector.

“(Bhattacharya) elected to leave the company to pursue other interests effective September 7,” said an e-mail sent to Safaricom staff and seen by Reuters on Wednesday. The message did not give any details about plans for the innovation lab.

Bhattacharya presided over the piloting of a social messaging app that will link to its widely used mobile money platform M-Pesa in an attempt to move the company into the application business.