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The man behind Kenya's top mobile provider
04:48 - Source: CNN
CNN  — 

Bob Collymore, Chief Executive Officer of Safaricom, Kenya’s largest mobile service provider, died of cancer on Monday, the company announced on Monday. He was 61.

Collymore began receiving treatment for leukemia in 2017, but his condition worsened in recent weeks, Safaricom Chairman Nicholas Nganga, said in a statement.

“He has been undergoing treatment for his condition since then in different hospitals and most recently at Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi. In recent weeks, his condition worsened, and he succumbed to the cancer at his home in the early hours of Monday,” the company said.

Kenya’s State House on Monday quoting President Uhuru Kenyatta in a post on Twitter said the country had lost a “distinguished corporate leader.”

“It is with deep sadness that I have this morning received news of the death of Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore after years of battling cancer. As a country, we’ve lost a distinguished corporate leader whose contribution to our national wellbeing will be missed,” Kenyatta said in the tweet.

The Guyanese-born British businessman joined the company in 2010 and has been praised for driving Safaricom innovative mobile payment system,

M-Pesa.

Kenya’s Central Bank Governor Patrick Njoroge said in a condolence message that Collymore’s leadership at the company had helped place Kenya as a global player in the financial sector.

“Bob helped position Kenya as a global leader in financial inclusion. His legacy will live on through all the people in Kenya and throughout the world whose lives have been changed by Safaricom’s innovations, “Njoroge said in a statement.