Kenya’s largest telco by market share, Safaricom has been presented with the “Outstanding Contribution to the Mobile Industry Award” by the GSM Association (GSMA), an association of global mobile operators.
The Award recognizes exceptional achievements for technology advancements in the mobile industry by an individual or organization that are shaping the mobile sector.
In particular, the award also recognised the tremendous impact of the late Safaricom CEO, Bob Collymore on the industry at a global level.
Speaking during a ceremony to present the awards to Safaricom, GSMA Head of Africa Wale Goodluck said, “The award celebrates Safaricom for being a pioneer in digital innovation. The industry recognizes the contribution that Safaricom has had in the country. Revolutionizing Kenya’s economy via M-PESA and leveraging the power of mobile phone to impact lives positively in health, agriculture and education sectors,” said Mr. Goodluck.
He added that as one of the pioneer organisations bringing mobile money to the unbanked of East Africa and fostering a commercial environment aimed at championing a generation of new and exciting entrepreneurs, GSMA believes Safaricom was the uncontested winner for the year 2020.
Speaking after receiving the award, Safaricom CEO, Peter Ndegwa said, “Our Transforming Lives purpose has driven our business over the last 20 years, and we appreciate that this is one of the factors that has contributed to this prestigious award. This recognition would not have been possible without our members of staff, who work every minute to ensure that our network delivers solutions to meet our customer’s needs. We are constantly innovating and finding new ways to enhance our customers’ experiences through products, services and solutions that are relevant to them.”
Also Read:
- Safaricom takes a pandemic hit as profit drops 11.5%
- Safaricom launches 5G network in Kenya
- Safaricom recognised as top taxpayer in Kenya
“Mobile connectivity is changing lives across Africa. It is transforming and uplifting lives in multiple ways ranging from communication to health and education to agriculture and financial services. These innovations have created a significant multiplier effect in the economies where mobile connectivity is taking root across Sub-Saharan Africa. It is our duty to ensure mobile connectivity hits its full potential for the benefit of our people.” Mr. Ndegwa added.
Safaricom’s latest industry commendation comes days after it announced its 2020/2021 full year results in which it recorded an 11.5 percent drop in its pre-tax profit to Ksh. 93.635 billion during the financial year ended March 31, 2020.
The telco giant also reported slight increase of 0.6 percent in its total revenue to Ksh. 264 billion from Ksh. 262.5 billion in 2020.
Safaricom’s Savings and Lending products however registered double digit growth with its Fuliza micro lending product outpacing the performance of the KCB M-PESA and M-Shwari products. Fuliza saw a 43.6 percent growth in disbursements to Ksh.351.2 billion. The telco’s revenue from Fuliza subsequently rose by 61.3 percent to Ksh.4.5 billion.
The number of daily active Fuliza customers also doubled to 1.4 million.
To support Micro and Small Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), the company introduced the Pochi la Biashara, M-PESA Business App, Bill Manager, Merchant Transacting Till and Self On-Boarding process. Safaricom has also announced that the consumer M-PESA App will be launched by the close of June this year.
