Safaricom sustains over a million jobs during year

Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa

File | Nation Media Group

By  James Kariuki

What you need to know:

• Safaricom’s activities and related businesses sustained 1,013,728 jobs.
• This was a four per cent rise from 979,000 reported a year ago. 
• It has mooted various programmes to support small and medium enterprises especially women-led businesses.

Operations at listed telco Safaricom impacted Kenyan lives to the tune of Sh654 billion in the 2019/2020 financial year, nine times higher than the profit earned during the same period.

According to the company’s 9th sustainable business report, Safaricom’s activities and related businesses sustained 1,013,728 jobs being a four per cent rise from 979,000 reported a year ago.

Safaricom Chief Executive Peter Ndegwa said 74 per cent of its expenditure went to local suppliers up from 67 per cent realised a year earlier.

“We believe in holding ourselves accountable by sharing our successes, our challenges and our constraints in a public, transparent and open manner. We have a duty to raise awareness of the sustainability challenges we face as a society and to ensure that these remain part of the discussion in Kenya and internationally,” Mr Ndegwa said Wednesday.

Through its various programmes the telco, East Africa’s most profitable company, has mooted various programmes to support small and medium enterprises especially women-led businesses where it has set aside tenders for them.

“We faced disruption in the telecommunications industry and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic during the later stages of the year but adoption of sustainable business practices is essential to cultivating the resilience necessary to thrive,” Mr Ndegwa.

jkariuki@ke.nationmedia.com