A report on a company’s social, environmental, and economic performance is known as a sustainable business report, also known as a sustainability report or a corporate social responsibility (CSR) report. Such a report serves to convey the company’s dedication to sustainable practices, openly disclose its effects on various stakeholders and the environment, and show efforts toward ethical business practices.
In the fiscal year that ended in March 2023, Safaricom increased its contribution to the Kenyan economy by 25%, getting closer to the Sh1 trillion mark while also maintaining over one million jobs. According to the company’s most recent annual sustainability report, its economic contribution increased from Sh727.2 billion to Sh909.5 billion, an increase of Sh182.3 billion.
According to Safaricom, its economic activities supported approximately 1.16 million direct and indirect jobs, increasing its influence in the economy at a time when there are a large number of young people leaving schools and institutions and there aren’t enough new job possibilities to meet demand. At the end of March, the telecom was supporting 236 674 direct jobs, with the remaining jobs coming from indirect sources including suppliers and customers of the company’s different goods.
“Our spending generates more jobs and benefits the staff at our suppliers. According to Safaricom, a portion of the extra cash created in this method is used for consumer goods and services. “This has a positive effect on the overall economy through linkages and multiplier effects, stimulating additional demand for the goods and services produced within the economy.”
With a contribution to the economy of Sh909.5 billion, Safaricom outperformed its net profit of Sh62.3 billion by 14.6 times. Additionally, it equates to 5.1% of Kenya’s gross domestic product (GDP). According to Safaricom, the Sh311 billion in annual revenue generated by its business contributes an estimated Sh660.9 billion to the GDP.
The social value from M-Pesa surged by 17.7% to Sh325 billion, while the economic value generated through operations increased by 3.4 percent to Sh542 billion. The telecom attributes these increases to an increase in customers and the average number and value of transactions performed per client.
Thousands of agents work for M-Pesa alone, which is a major player in the country’s payments system thanks to its widespread use by retailers. The platform is primarily responsible for all other direct jobs at Safaricom, including the 270,360 M-Pesa agents employed around the nation. Safaricom also maintains a network of 720 suppliers in addition to 432 dealers that sell data, equipment, and airtime on the telco’s behalf.
It spent Sh102 billion on purchasing goods and services from domestic and international vendors last year, which in turn generated more than one million employment opportunities. Twelve years ago, the telco began publishing its sustainability report, which it uses to outline its initiatives, opportunities, and difficulties in sustaining Kenya’s tech ecosystem while adhering to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles.
“Sustainability is not just a nice thing, but also the right thing to do, according to Safaricom. The CEO of Safaricom, Peter Ndegwa, stated, “We have formalized this approach by prioritizing nine of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, which we use as a framework to accomplish our objective. With a market capitalization of Sh586.96 billion on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE), Safaricom, which has been operating for more than 25 years, is both Kenya’s largest and most profitable listed company.
The telecom has been measuring the organization’s good and negative effects on society, the environment, and the economy since 2015 using a structured impact modeling tool, the KPMG ‘True Value’ approach. “True value enables us to combine financial earnings data with monetized externality data and to quantify the likelihood and impact of the latter becoming the former,” the telco claims. By 2025, Safaricom wants to further its sustainability initiatives and develop into a purpose-driven technology corporation. In order to finance its sustainable growth strategy, the company last month reached an agreement with a group of local and foreign banks to raise Sh15 billion in sustainability-linked loans from them.
The KCB Group, Absa, Standard Bank of South Africa, and Standard Chartered have all signed up for the credit facility, which has a maximum borrowing capacity of Sh20 billion. Based on the gradual accomplishment of predetermined goals across ESG categories, Safaricom will be able to receive finance thanks to the agreement.
