Corporate affairs
Corporate affairs forms an important part of our intellectual and social and relationship capitals. The function helps shape public opinion and policy, manage key stakeholders, counsel the business on law and compliance, and lead it in doing good in our communities, thereby growing and defending our reputation.
In fulfilling this role during the year under review, we proactively guided the Group’s legal, regulatory, public policy and public relations agenda in order to strategically establish a customer-obsessed, digital-first organisation delivering double-digit growth.
During the year under review, we were engaged in promoting, elucidating and propagating the Group’s activities and achievements in FY2022. These included our mission (click here), the Spirit of Safaricom (click here), DigiFarm (click here), education, wealth creation and health (click here, here and here), technology (click here), financial inclusion (click here),
During the year under review, we continued to invest in various purpose-led products, services and initiatives to support Kenyans and our stakeholders as we recover from the impacts of the pandemic.
This investment includes our commitment to fast and reliable internet, doubling the bandwidth on our fibre connections to enable customers to work and learn from home, and providing concessional data rates for universities and other learning institutions. In addition, we increased the
Through change communications, storytelling and media, employer branding and internal communications, brand positioning, and reputation and crisis management, we have been able to grow and manage Safaricom’s reputation. This contributed towards our aim of positively influencing the legal, regulatory and public policy agenda by the end of FY2022 as we pave the way to become a purpose-led Technology Company by 2025.
We provided support for the business as it made great strides in establishing a customer-obsessed, digital-first organisation delivering double-digit growth by the end of FY2022, as part of the Group’s strategic focus for FY2023. We have now embarked on our strategic focus for FY2023, which is focused on accelerating new growth areas delivering superior customer experience in order to be a purpose-led Technology Company by 2025. For more on strategy, click here.
Some of the key messages we heard from stakeholders during the year under review included queries concerning:
- Heightened regulatory scrutiny.
- More consumer awareness, with a broader focus on the consumer and deepening of consumer’s awareness of their rights, with an emphasis on value for money.
- Broader focus on data governance, specifically on the implementation of the data protection and privacy framework, including the desire for more action from the newly appointed Data Commissioner who would like to see such initiatives as the launching of a portal initiating complaints. For more on stakeholders, click here.
During the year investors voiced their interest in a number of aspects of the business.
The Group has the following channels in place to ensure that attitudes and views within the organisation are properly heard:
- A moment with Peter (CEO)
- SEMA survey
- Bonga na CEO
- Departmental/Divisional townhalls and check-ins
Conversely, we ensure that messages from management are fully understood by all staff through:
- Regular, clear and consistent communications to inform and provide regular updates
- Tools that support effective communications
- Shaping communications so that they are conversationally-driven
- Inspiring employees to become brand advocates
- Regular surveys from staff, ensuring that actions are taken and then communicated once closed
- Constant amplification and publicising of various initiatives, benefits and staff welfare
In the short-term, we anticipate that the following factors will be of importance in influencing the Group’s interests:
- Commercial launch in Ethiopia
- Merchant Interoperability discussions
- Organisationally embedding the Spirit of Safaricom and Agile
- A changing competitive environment
- Increased scrutiny by various regulators on Group activities
- The increasing desire among more people to see the Group doing good in the community, and being seen to do good through our products and services
- Consumers growing cynical about Group activities
- Future technologies, including IoT and blockchain technologies
- The impact of the upcoming General Elections, with polling scheduled for August 2022
In the medium-term, in order for change to be aligned with future growth we will need to:
- Transition successfully into Agile ways of working
- Focus on digital transformation and automation
- Roll out the next phase of our strategy
