A Safaricom shop. [Kachwanya.com]
Safaricom (NSE: SCOM) on Tuesday announced the opening of its fourth regional headquarters in Kisumu town.
Located at Tuff Foam Mall, the new regional offices will serve ten counties in Western and Nyanza, including Busia, Bungoma, Homabay, Kakamega, Kisii, Kisumu, Migori, Nyamira, Siaya, Vihiga and parts of Narok County including Kilgoris town and its environs. In addition to the regional headquarters, the mobile operator also announced the opening of a revamped Safaricom Shop in Kisumu town, also located at Tuff Foam Mall. Customers will also have access to Safaricom services at Customer Care Desks located at dealer outlets across 16 towns in the region. The Care Desks provide the same level of service as the company’s call centre and Safaricom shops. “Two years ago, we embarked on a regionalisation strategy with the aim of consolidating our investments to better serve our customers, wherever they may be across the country. This strategy has led to increased convenience for Safaricom customers, and enables us to have a closer understanding of their needs when designing our products and services,” said Bob Collymore, CEO Safaricom. Over the last two years, Safaricom has grown its network in the Western Region by 71 percent resulting in a footprint of more than 1,300 sites. The expansion has led to a 138 percent increase in 3G broadband coverage in ten counties. To further enhance coverage and network quality in the region, Safaricom has announced plans to invest in more than 200 new sites in the current year. The move will see a 30 percent increase in 3G and 4G broadband coverage across the ten counties. Safaricom has also rolled out its 4G network across all county headquarters and major towns in the region, including Kisii, Kakamega, Bungoma, Busia, Homa Bay, Migori, Rongo, Kendu Bay, Sondu, Oyugis, Keroka, Suneka, Awasi, Luanda, Bondo, Webuye, Malaba, Chavakali, Ahero, Mumias, Kilgoris and Port Victoria. Other network investments include the rollout of Safaricom’s backbone fibre network across more than 15 towns, and the rollout of fibre for business in Kakamega, Kisii and Kisumu towns. Safaricom has similarly started connecting residents of the region to the company’s fibre to the home service, beginning with Kisumu town, with a number of additional towns planned in the coming months. In addition to the Western Region, Safaricom has in the last year opened new regional headquarters in Mombasa, Nakuru and in Nairobi serving the Coast, Rift and Nairobi East Regions respectively. In its 2016/2017 results announcement, the company announced the regionalization strategy had resulted in an additional 3 million customers choosing Safaricom as their preferred network.