My first 100 days of shaping A Better Tomorrow at BAT East Africa

It’s hard to believe how quickly the last three months have passed, but I am delighted that tomorrow, I mark my first 100 days of leading BAT’s business in East Africa. I hit the ground running at the start of January when I re-joined BAT after a tree-year hiatus served in a different sector. Since my return, I have spent my days getting up to speed with the current challenges the Business is facing, familiarising myself with my new team and planning for the months and years ahead.

In a sense, my current experience is like returning home. I am therefore lucky in this aspect as my previous time at BAT across its various African markets, has been tremendously helpful. I am also fortunate to be surrounded by an incredibly talented and motivated team, which has been invaluable in helping me settle back in. 

Even though I was away from BAT for three years, it’s exciting to see how much the business has evolved and changed over that time. For example, last year the BAT Group rolled out an evolved business strategy and purpose. We have evolved from a tobacco company to a multicategory consumer goods business dedicated to providing adult smokers with more choice, through a range of innovative and potentially less risky products. This is on the back of our new corporate purpose: to build A Better Tomorrow for our consumers, society, employees and shareholders by reducing the health impact of our business. At the same time, we remain committed to addressing the environmental impact of our business, delivering a positive social impact and ensuring robust corporate governance across the business, through our robust Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) agenda which is front and center of everything we do.

What has not changed is the quality of the team, with BAT continuing to recruit and nurture the best talent in the market. Just recently in January, BAT Kenya was certified by the global Top Employers Institute for the 4th time in a row, as a Top Employer in Kenya and Africa, coming in at no. 2. BAT Uganda proudly received their certification for Uganda and Africa, upon applying for the certification for the very first time!

With employee engagement and wellbeing at the top of my agenda, a key focus of mine for the coming months will be continuing to ensure employee safety as the COVID-19 pandemic persists. I'm also looking to continue the good work started by my predecessor, Beverley Spencer-Obatoyinbo, in building a great and purposeful place to work, where employees can bring their difference and thrive.

I am proud of my talented team, which has been instrumental to BAT’s success. In February, we announced the 2020 Full Year results for our two listed entities in East Africa – BAT Kenya and BAT Uganda. And whilst 2020 was most certainly a challenging year especially for our domestic market in Kenya, we closed the year on a strong footing thanks to export opportunities. BAT Uganda delivered a strong set of results that demonstrate resilience in the face of an unprecedented difficult operating environment.

Looking back over the last 100 days, there have been many proud moments and early achievements. This month, progress has been made on getting guidance from regulators on a framework under which our new category products can be sold. On the recognition front, BAT Kenya’s Top Employer certification received in January was followed hot on its heels by various awards, at the Kenya Association of Manufacturing’s Women in Manufacturing (WIM) Awards, for our work in championing diversity and inclusion of women in manufacturing, as well as triple wins at the Financial Reporting Awards (FiRe). In February, we commissioned phase one of BAT Kenya’s solar project, which will enhance our energy efficiency and conservation by increasing our use of renewable energy.

In the coming months, not only do I want to build on these and other successes, I also want to drive forward with our ambition to build a Better Tomorrow for our stakeholders. Key to this is a sustainable regulatory and fiscal environment in Kenya and across our East African Markets, which will not only safeguard legitimate business in our industry, but also support economic recovery by ensuring predictable excise tax revenues for Government.

In addition, I want to put renewed emphasis on stomping out the illegal tobacco trade which is significant in our Kenyan and Ugandan markets. Not only will this help to recoup billions of shillings in lost Government revenues (approximate annual excise tax losses of KSh 4 billion and Ushs 30 billion), it will also help to safeguard the livelihoods of our tobacco farmers and traders.

Looking forward, it is clear that 2021 is going to be another challenging year for businesses across East Africa, and globally, whilst the COVID-19 pandemic persists. I am however fully committed to working with my team to accelerate the transformation of our business and industry, and propel this great Company even further forward.