Days before the gloom - the water cannons, and the young protesters shot in the head - Ann Kinuthia-Otieno, Chief Executive of Airtel Money walks onto the rooftop of Emara Ole Sereni in Nairobi. A petite lady, you can immediately tell she’s (to use an apt analogy of the moment) a bullet; straight-shooting, driven, and determined.
She left Absa Bank as a head of products to run Airtel’s mobile business after it split from Airtel Networks a few years ago to operate as a standalone business. And she comes at a tough time to do business—hell, tough time to just be alive—as a challenger brand. Even more daunting is that she faces a herculean task in the form of mobile money dominance.
