Kenyan telco Safaricom released its latest annual sustainability report late last week, marking its 24th year of operation in the country. Under the theme “Accelerating Digital Inclusion”, the green company, through its CEO Peter Ndegwa, reflected majorly on its journey towards making an impact on Kenya and its people as well as its recent entry into the Ethiopian market.
Safaricom now confirms that it has contributed up to KES 983 billion to the Kenyan economy having sustained 1,283,329 jobs in the last Financial Year. The firm’s economic value through that period stood at KES 562.2 billion while M-PESA’s stood at KES 348 billion.
As a company looking to have a major social impact across the country, Safaricom confirms that it incorporated 9 out of the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs), enabling its business model to benefit millions of Kenyans in community projects.
Of course, there is no doubt that Safaricom has been the dominant factor when it comes to the world of telco, internet provision and mobile money networks through M-PESA. This is while the domination has come with major criticism over the last few years due to a drop in service delivery.
“Safaricom has been navigating rapidly changing business and social environments by deploying sustainable business practices. Looking ahead, our Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles will be anchored on technology as we prepare to transition to a TechCo by 2030. This will grant us new opportunities to meet the evolving needs of our communities, improving customer experience and maintaining environmental stewardship, said Peter Ndegwa, CEO, of Safaricom during the report launch.
In the same report, the company marked a new milestone since its entry into Ethiopia, having currently registered 4.5 million customers while 38% of the population has been connected. Its journey in the East African market was also marked recently with the expansion of M-PESA Global services that now enables Kenyans to transact to and from Ethiopia directly from their mobile money wallet with ease.
