2022 Sustainable Business Report

9 PARTNERING FOR GROWTH: TRANSFORMING LIVES | KPI SUMMARY OUR STAKEHOLDERS OUR MATERIAL TOPICS OUR BUSINESS The usefulness of technology does not lie in its uniqueness but in its ability to solve a pressing societal problem. While unique is good, a functional solution that solves a societal problem is better. Our telemedicine initiative that targets over 32 000 children in Homabay, Samburu, Baringo and Lamu Counties is one example of solving a societal issue. It is also an example of the power of partnerships. As a technology company, we do not have the expertise to overcome healthcare challenges on our own. However, working closely in partnership with the national and county governments and others, we can scale solutions to support access to quality paediatric healthcare and a healthy workforce. Yet another example is our partnership with Zeraki Learning to provide secondary school learners with access to affordable education services from well trained teachers leveraging informative video lessons on a digital platform. Education is one of our priority areas and we will continue to invest in this sector through our products, services and Foundations. We want to continue to play a key role in driving healthcare and education inclusion as well as enabling smallholder farmers to become wealthier and commercially sustainable. Innovation can also be leveraged to promote the inclusion of unserved markets, as we demonstrated in the reporting year with the launch of Halal Pesa, a shari'ah-compliant digital product for savings and credit. We saw over two million opt-ins on the product in the reporting period. CELEBRATING LIFE-SAVING FINANCIAL SERVICES The launch of M-PESA ushered in an era of life-changing financial services for millions of customers. In 15 years, M-PESA has served over 51 million customers in seven countries and has grown by 15% in the last five years to become the largest fintech platform in Africa. Today, M-PESA has evolved from a simple money transfer service to become a robust payment platform and driver of financial inclusion for Kenyans. During the reporting year, we reached the milestone of 30 million monthly active M-PESA customers in Kenya. M-PESA is a genius invention. However, I believe we are yet to scratch the surface of its potential when leveraged as a platform that supports other fintech ideas. The M-PESA super-app which we launched in the past year is the start of this. The super app enables the use and completion of transactions without bundles or even when offline. Customers can download ‘mini-apps’ within the app to complete tasks ranging from ticket booking to shopping and licence applications. The super app also incorporates comprehensive security features. The super app won a prestigious Global Mobile Award at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in the category ‘Best Mobile Innovation for Connected Living’. The award builds on M-PESA’s legacy of consistently delivering innovations that meet the needs of our customers in line with our purpose of transforming lives. We will maintain this commitment into the future to deliver digital financial innovations and enhance our customers’ experience as more of our customers move to smartphones. COLLABORATING TO ACCELERATE NEW GROWTH AREAS In October 2020, we rolled out our new corporate strategy, the overarching aim of which is to Transform Lives. The third pillar of this strategy was based on ‘winning in select digital ecosystems’. Based on our view that we have progressed well in achieving this pillar, we have now recalibrated this ambition to ‘accelerate new growth areas’. “We want to continue to play a key role in driving healthcare and education inclusion as well as enabling smallholder farmers to become wealthier and commercially sustainable.” “During the reporting year, we reached the milestone of 30 million monthly active M-PESA customers in Kenya.”