Safaricom - 2021 Sustainable Business Report

57 SAFARICOM SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS REPORT 2021 / STANDING TOGETHER: GOING BEYOND //// OUR MATERIAL TOPICS / OUR STAKEHOLDERS / KPI SUMMARY services as well as the opportunity to expand M-PESA into new African markets. The joint venture will allow Safaricom and Vodacom to drive the next generation of M-PESA – an intelligent cloud based platform for the smartphone age. The acquisition will enable a more aggressive expansion strategy to other markets on the continent where the platform is not available. PARTNERSHIP WITH GOOGLE TO MAKE SMART DEVICES AFFORDABLE We partnered with Google to provide access to smartphones through a device financing project known as ‘Lipa Mdogo Mdogo’ – which is roughly translated from Swahili as “pay in instalments”. Our numbers showed that of our 23.77 million mobile data customers, only about 8.5 million own 4G devices, while 8.2 million have 3G capable devices. One of the most significant barriers to access to smart devices has always been that of smartphone affordability. Through Lipa Mdogo Mdogo qualifying customers can buy 4G-enabled smartphones and pay through daily instalments of KSh 20 over a period of 12 months. Eligibility for the plan is based on a customer credit score and a history with the Safaricom network going back one year. By year end, there had been an uptake of over 247 379 devices, with over 60% of our customers upgrading from 2G and 3G to 4G devices. In FY21, smartphones connected to the network increased from 15 million to 16.7 million, representing a YoY increase of 11.3%. DIGITISING THE CUSTOMER Service FY18 FY19 FY20 FY21 Smartphones connected to the network (millions) 10.9 12.2 15 16.7 4G enabled smartphones (millions) 2.2 3.2 6.1 8.5 GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR ETHIOPIA In November 2020, Ethiopia, a country of 110 million people with one of the world’s last closed telecoms markets, announced the opening of a bid for a telecoms licence. We participated in the bidding process under the auspices of a Safaricom-led consortium comprising of Vodacom, Sumitomo the Japanese conglomerate and CDC, the UK sovereign investment fund. By the time of this report going to publication it was announced that our consortium had won the bid and was awarded the operating licence in the Ethiopian market. OUR PARTNERSHIP ECOSYSTEM Agriculture Clean energy Education Financial services Health