PDSL TURNS 20

A message from our CEO.

This is to remind you that today is the 20th anniversary of PDSL. It is 20 years since we started our operations on the 10th April, 2000. It is also Good Friday and coming at an extra-ordinary time when our country and the world is being ravaged by the Covid-19 pandemic. It is with this background that we have to mark this anniversary being indoors.

Let me wish each one of you and your families a safe and happy Easter Holiday, encouraging each one of you to stay at home as far as is possible and follow the Ministry of Health guidelines.

Let me start by thanking all who have taken part in the journey that has brought us so far:

• The PDSL staff
• Our Customers wherever they are
• Our Local Partners
• Our International Partners
• Our Vendors
• Our Aggregators
• Friends and our Family members.

All the above have contributed, in one way or another, to the success that has been associated with PDSL. It has been a long journey full of ups and downs. Challenges have been many but courage and the will to push on and succeed has always seen us through. I want to highlight the family like atmosphere created by the PDSL fraternity. Where everybody is the brother’s/sister’s keeper. This has been a source of greatinspiration and strength that has always given us hope, belief and the will to keep on walking. We started then,in a small way and have grown to be what PDSL is today, culminating, last year, being ranked 5th in Top 100 SMEs and the 1st in the ICT sector by KPMG and Nation Media Group survey. We were also ranked the Best partner in Mobile Banking by Thales / Gemalto in the Commonwealth of Independent States, Middle East and Africa (CISMEA) region.

I am very proud of the PDSL family, our innovations, our discipline, our unit of purpose and our honesty and integrity. These are the qualities that have brought us this far. I would like to take cognation of our long serving members of staff who have given so many years ofselfless service. I would like to take notice of all the other staff who have sacrificed long hours at end,
sometimes at night, to beat tight deadlines. To all of you, congratulations.

I also take this opportunity to thank PDSL shareholders for the trust they have shown to the management team and being there all the time to offer the much-needed support and guidance to the management team and the whole company as whole. I commend the executive and senior management teams without whose support we would not be where we are.

Our customers are all the reasons we exist. It is for them that we have the reason to wake up early every morning to serve them. We thank them for giving us that chance to be of service to them. In this respect, I would like to mention the following local customers / partners:

• Safaricom for being a customer as well as a partner
• KPLC for being a big customer for us.
• Telkom Kenya Limited
• Airtel Kenya Limited
• Equitel
• Equity Bank Limited
• NCBA Bank Ltd
• Teachers Service Commission
• Kenya National Examination Council
• Ministry of Education
• The Judiciary through the International Development Law Organization
• Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy
• Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority
• Our Aggregators
• Our individual Vendors

I would also like to mention the following international partners:

• Thales / Gemalto of France
• Itron of the USA
• iPay of South Africa
• Bizswitch of Mauritius
• 6D of India
• TPS of Pakistan
• Rasul of Portugal

As we reflect into our past and the journey we have walked so far, we can not forget to focus on the future. As we say tomorrow is more important than yesterday. The past can only be historical but the future has hope and offers something to look forward to. In this respect I would once again call for our concerted effort in the PDSL family to continue and double our efforts to make PDSL even stronger. There is much more that needs to be achieved. We are not yet at the top.

We should focus on broadening our horizon to the region and to Africa as a whole. We should continue focusing on our customers to offer even better service having in mind that our customers are our best ambassadors and our advertisers. We should continue being innovative and creative as technologies and the way we do things keep on changing.

Our customers keep on demanding more and better services and we should always be in a position to offer the same. Let us look forward to the coming years with optimism trusting in our ability to overcome any challenge that will present itself. Let us continue to be honest in our business dealing always being truthful to ourselves and to others. Honesty and Integrity has brought us thus far and will take us even further in the future. Let us endeavor to do the best we can in everything that we set ourselves to do.

TOGETHER WE WILL OVERCOME and TOGETHER WE WILL SUCCEED.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY PDSL.
DAVID MAINA KARANJA - CEO