Sustainability Report 2016

Safaricom Sustainability Report 2016

Affordable devices driving mobile data usage

As the following table shows, we enjoyed another year of good growth in terms of mobile data. We grew our mobile data

customers (who have been active within the last 30 days) from 11.59 million to 14.08 million. Likewise, our revenue from

mobile data grew from KSh 14.82 to KSh 21.15 million and now accounts for 11.9% of our total revenue.

FY16

FY15

FY14

Mobile Data Revenue (KSh billion)

21.15

14.82

9.31

Mobile Data Customers (million)*

14.08

11.59

9.56

* 30-day active

One of the key stimulants for mobile data usage is

smartphone ownership and so an important focus for us

during the year was to make internet-capable devices

more affordable.

To achieve this goal, we made four entry-level smartphones

available for less than KSh 5,000. The most inexpensive

device we launched was the Safaricom Neon Smartphone

at KSh 3,999. Other affordable options included the

Tecno Y3s, the Wiko Sunset 2 and Huawei Y330, which

we launched for KSh 4,999. These affordable devices

contributed 575,000 units to overall device sales for the

year.

We also expanded our range of 4G-enabled smartphones

and this category of device contributed a further 152,000

units to overall device sales during FY16. The total number

of mobile data smartphones connected to our network

almost doubled from 3.4 to 7.8 million.

In response to our new focus on putting the customer

first, we also changed our policy regarding 2G-enabled

devices during the year. We had been concentrating on

3G- and 4G-enabled devices, but decided to put the

needs of customers first and launch our most affordable

device yet, the Wiko Lubi 2, for just KSh 999. This device

has proved to be immensely popular and sold 200,000

units within six months.