Safaricom 2023 Sustainable Business Report

42 OUR BUSINESS OUR STAKEHOLDERS KPI SUMMARY SAFARICOM SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS REPORT 2023 OUR MATERIAL TOPICS • Deployment of Service Operation Centre (SOC) tool to enable network experience insights at customer level. • Rollout of additional 205 5G sites. • Expansion of fibre footprint by 3,120 kms to 14,000 kms. • Maintained our leadership position in Quality of Service (QoS) survey. • 1.6 million registered farmers on DigiFarm, 167,000 farmers engaged on credit, KSh 940 million in loans disbursed to farmers. • Hustler fund developed in collaboration with the Government, now has 16.11 million subscribers, with KSh 24.44 billion disbursed. • Launch of myCounty app. • Fuliza: 50% price reduction. SDG GOALS OUR HIGHLIGHTS We leverage our partnerships (SDG17) to continually develop and refine our innovative products and services (SDG9) which broaden socio-economic development (SDG8) and contribute to reduced inequalities at every level of society (SDG10). DELIVERING ALWAYS-ON DIGITAL- FIRST TECHNOLOGY As we work to connect stakeholders across the country, thereby enabling them to access information seamlessly, our key priority is to deliver always-on digital-first technology operations, with the overarching aim of establishing a responsive, customer- obsessed technology environment. This was accelerated through the network team’s rapid adoption of an Agile working methodology which has resulted in faster decision-making, speedier implementation of planned initiatives and more efficient resolution of issues. It was also facilitated by the consolidation of fibre demand planning and management in the fixed data space. This has enabled ease of operations and faster time to market. In addition, the Service Operation Centre (SOC) tool which uses data insights to enhance our customers’ interactions with our products and services, helped us realise our vision and better anticipate our customers’ needs. We expanded our product offerings by partnering with YouTube to promote and grow Short Video content (YouTube Shorts) by offering low-cost bundles users. We continued to: • Deploy embedded SIM (eSIM) cards. These are more secure than physical SIMs because they obviate the need to obtain, carry, and swap physical SIM cards (which can also be lost), or wait for them to arrive by mail. • Activate innovative features such as VoLTE and voice over broadband (VoBB); VoLTE now has1.2 million daily active users accounting for 7.3% of total voice traffic. • Focus on cost reduction through contract negotiations with our vendors and partners, achieving 10% savings in our support services contracts (IT and networks). • Drive cost leadership through the installation of 1 432 solar sites, resulting in a 22% saving on energy bills. • Reinstate and deploy spectrum lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. • Overcome the challenge of densification of high-rise buildings especially in urban centres which negatively impacts indoor coverage. We have ongoing initiatives to improve deep indoor coverage in these locations: CBD Kamukunji, Donholm, Eastleigh, Pipeline, Roysambu, Tassia and Zimmerman. As indicated in the table below, there was a significant increase in fibre to the home (FTTH) and enterprise buildings connected. This was facilitated by early planning based on the provision of timely profiling information by the channels team advising where fibre was to be rolled out. It was also enabled by the adoption of Agile ways of working whereby daily stand-ups made it possible to identify blockers and fast-track rollout. The accelerated expansion of our fibre footprint by 3 120 kms was due to overhead deployment of data driven planning which prioritised certain regions for fibre rollout. We maintained a leading position in Quality of Service across all metrics through capacity improvements both in the radio and core network to accommodate increased demand for data, rollout of additional sites to improve coverage and ongoing network optimisation initiatives to improve customer experience. OUR PLATFORMS