As the preceding graphics (bottom left) show, our NPS score for overall consumer customer satisfaction was 72 per cent in March 2018 (the end of the reporting period). It peaked at 80 per cent earlier in the year, prior to the elections, but dropped afterwards and only recovered to 72 per cent by March 2018. Our Brand Consideration (BC) score also decreased signifi cantly from 80 in FY17 to 60 during the year.

Overall, the protracted electioneering period and subdued economic environment did exert some downward pressure on both our NPS and BC scores. Our NPS recovered quicker and to higher levels, which we attribute to the introduction of several successful new products and services, as well as the positive infl uence of established services like M-PESA. The reduction in our Brand Consideration score can be partly attributed to the weighting given to certain questions asked in the research, such as the question ‘which SIM card would you buy for a second line?’. The reduction can also be attributed to the perception that Safaricom products and services are expensive, as well as a decrease in consumer trust. When faster data transfer speeds were introduced, some customers were surprised by how much quicker data bundles were consumed and distrusted the balances on their accounts as a result.

We acknowledge the feedback given by our customers in regard to our data products. During the period under review, we introduced My Data Manager as a first step in helping customers take control of their data usage and data spend. My Data Manager allows customers to choose to only access data when on a data bundle, which means that their airtime will not be consumed once they exhaust their data bundle. There are also plans to roll out more data management tools in the coming financial year, with a goal of empowering our customers to fine tune what services have access to their data and how much data these services can consume.

Safaricom Platinum offers high-value subscribers exclusive lifestyle bundles and discounts.

Songa by Safaricom is a music streaming app that helps artists earn extra revenue from their music and, at the same time, gives our customers easy access to, and control of, the music they like from their mobile devices.

Artwork from the Shinda Mamili campaign that incentivised customers to purchase Tunukiwa offers (bundles) by entering them into regional prize draws.

FLEX allows users to convert prepaid units into airtime, SMS or data as needed.

We are satisfi ed with the growth in mobile data revenue and customers during the year, given the challenging political and economic environment. We increased our mobile data customers (who have been active within the last 30 days) from 16.6 to 17.7 million. Likewise, our revenue from mobile data grew from KES 29.3 to KES 36.4 million, and now accounts for 16.2% of our total service revenue. While year-on-year growth was less than that achieved in FY17, we increased mobile data usage per customer by 56.3%, exceeding our target for FY18 by 10.2%.

Among the campaigns we ran during the year were the Funtastic 4Gs web series (pictured is one of the characters, Gina), which highlighted the reliability, speed and coverage of our network, and the Swift Squad, which offers customers advice on how to manage their apps and settings to ensure they get the most out of their bundles and airtime.

It appears that the political uncertainty may have counteracted the challenging economic conditions to an extent and that the elections may have stimulated a considerable amount of entrepreneurial activity, as well as prompting people to travel, to purchase certain goods and foodstuffs, and even to stockpile funds on the platform itself.

Deepening financial inclusion

Aside from the important fi nancially-enabling role M-PESA plays in the lives of more than 20 million Kenyans, two of the specifi c ways we monitor its impact on deepening fi nancial inclusion are through the M-Shwari micro-fi nance savings and loans service, which helps underserved Kenyans access banking facilities and credit, and the Lipa Na M-PESA merchant service, which supports and enables entrepreneurial and SME activity across the economy.

The reduction in M-Shwari customers during the year is a refl ection of the increasingly competitive nature of the micro-fi nance market. The market has entered a natural period of volatility and growth as it matures, with companies that have larger appetites for risk entering the market and customers evaluating different products to suit their needs. The significant growth of deposits can be attributed to more M-PESA users moving money between their M-PESA and M-Shwari accounts in order to maximise the benefits of each.

Our Lipa Na M-PESA merchant service enjoyed solid growth this year, which we attribute to the 50% reduction on all merchant fees and the extension of the M-PESA Kadogo (no charges on transactions under KES 100) rate to customers as well as merchants.

• M-Salama

This disaster management service sends early warning information and natural disaster alerts to subscribers. A pilot was conducted in March 2018 with 800 subscribers to gain feedback and develop insights for improvement of the platform and, during the year, over 10 million messages were sent during the outbreaks of fl ooding and Rift Valley Fever. The service is run in partnership with the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) and the platform also enables Kenyans to register as volunteers with the KRCS.