Safaricom has appointed Sylvia Anampiu as director of fixed business as Kenya’s largest telecoms operator moves closer to rolling out pay-as-you-go fibre broadband for homes and offices.
The appointment comes as Safaricom prepares to overhaul how fixed internet is sold, shifting from traditional monthly subscriptions to daily, weekly and monthly plans designed to mirror mobile data pricing. The model is central to the company’s plan to triple Kenya’s fixed broadband market over the next five years.
Sylvia Anampiu, who took up the role on Jan. 5, is leading strategy, growth and profitability across Safaricom’s fixed broadband business, spanning home and enterprise connectivity. She is also overseeing new pricing models aimed at lowering the cost of entry for households beyond high-income neighbourhoods.
Safaricom chief executive Peter Ndegwa said in December that fixed broadband sits at the centre of the group’s next phase of growth.
“We have just over 400,000 customers on fixed broadband today, in a market serving about 1.2 million,” Ndegwa said. “At a country level, the opportunity is closer to four million, leaving roughly three million people still to be connected.”
Safaricom expects the segment to grow by as much as 50% a year without reaching saturation, supported by a mix of fibre, 5G fixed wireless access and lower-cost customer devices.
The company plans to roll out tokenised Wi-Fi access and prepaid fibre in the second half of its financial year, which runs from October to March, allowing customers to buy broadband in time-based bundles rather than committing to monthly plans.
“In the same way we transformed mobile data with flexible pricing, we are now doing the same for fixed,” Ndegwa said.
Sylvia Anampiu joins from Bayobab Kenya, part of MTN Group, where she served as managing director and led fibre network expansion and business restructuring. She has previously held senior roles at Airtel Africa, Orange Kenya and Bayer East Africa.
Her appointment also supports Safaricom’s push to bundle fixed connectivity with ICT, cloud and IoT services for small and medium-sized businesses, a segment the company says remains underserved.