Tech in Africa
According to the previous year’s financial statements, Kenya’s most profitable and dominant telecommunication giant Safaricom contributed a whopping 6% of the East African country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The company, directly and indirectly, supports over a million jobs.
Founded in 2000, the company has experienced an astronomical run recording revenues of KSh 262.6 billion (US$2.4 billion) in the period under review, which contributed KSh 549.8 billion (US$5.1 billion) to the country’s national GDP. This impact can be separated into KSh 152.7 billion (US$1.4 billion) directly, KSh 94.7 billion (US$871 million) indirectly, and KSh 302.4 billion (US$2.8 billion) induced impact.
Safaricom released the 2020 9th Sustainability Report where it sustained 1,013 of which it sustained 1,013, 728 jobs from 979,000, an impressive 4% increase from the last financial year.
Here are some of the takes from the report:
- Served 35.6 million customers, an increase of 11.9% from the previous year.
- 22 million mobile data consumers, a 14.2% increase from the previous year.
- M-PESA Global accounted for 50% in-bound gain on foreign remittances, which were up by 12.1%.
- 15 million smartphone users on the network.
- 142,000 residential homes connected to its fiber-optic network.
- 11,911 businesses connected to the fiber-optic network, a 99% increase.
Safaricom is also involved in several tech-related societal uplifting initiatives such as:
The unstructured service supplementary data (USSD) and SMS service that enables students and teachers to take quizzes, search subjects to study, and access Wikipedia summaries without an internet connection, Shupavu. There are 939 772 active subscribers on this platform and has been used by 5 million learners since 2016.
The Wezesha programme by the Safaricom Foundation has trained 1 883 youth equipping them with digital skills and jobs. Of this number 826 trainees secured work thereafter.
