Safaricom’s Bold Tech Pivot: Decode 2025 Event Highlights AI, Cybersecurity, and Climate Innovation

Safaricom Decode 2025 event has just concluded making a milestone in the company’s tech transformation.

Safaricom Decode, the company’s three-day engineering summit, now its third edition, ended yesterday with over 10,000 attendees both in-person and online following its proceedings. The event held under the “Charting East Africa’s Digital Destiny” theme focussed on showcasing Safaricom’s significant shift from its traditional telco roots with a vision of becoming a purpose-led tech company in the next five years.

This year’s Decode became a platform for collaborative discussions and knowledge exchange between young engineers, innovators, scientists, and tech enthusiasts to envision the future of engineering and the digital landscape in East Africa as pointed out by the summit’s theme.

Shifting from Telco to Tech

“This summit highlights our ongoing transformation from a telecommunications company into a diversified tech giant, pioneering innovations across industries such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and cybersecurity,” said Dr. Peter Ndegwa, Safaricom’s CEO, emphasizing the company’s bold vision of becoming Africa’s leading purpose-led technology company in the next five years.

Safaricom’s strategic pivot will be powered by taking advantage of emerging technologies like AI, machine learning, and blockchain to enhance its digital solutions for communities, consumers, and businesses across East Africa and the whole continent.

Cybersecurity Takes Center Stage

A key focal point of Safaricom Decode 2025 was cybersecurity.  The summit had cybersecurity experts pointing out the critical roles it plays in protecting East Africa’s increasingly booming digital economy.

‘’The goal is to embed security into every layer of digital progress, fostering resilience, trust, and sustainable growth,’’ said Cynthia Kropac, Safaricom’s Chief Enterprise Business Officer.

The keynote address was given by Colonel (Dr.) James Kimuyu, Director of the NC4, on the proactive defense and collaboration across the industry to combat the escalating cyber threats. Moreover, the summit acknowledged AI and industry partnerships as the primary tools for tackling these emerging threats.

Innovation and Climate Resilience

Also held at the summit was the Earth Arena session, with much focus on technology affecting climate resilience. The event was commenced by Fred Waithaka, Safaricom’s Acting Chief Corporate Affairs Officer when he raised the need to establish climate-appropriate infrastructure and sustainable solutions for East Africa. Various discussions were held afterward to extend this theme, particularly on financing issues around climate resilience with the view of the Net-Zero 2050 vision for Africa.

Highlighting the session was Dr. Srinivasan Rajavelu’s talk on Leveraging Artificial Intelligence for Predictive Analytics to combat climate challenges. Participants learned the transformative prospect of AI in the design of sustainable and adaptive infrastructures.

Looking Ahead: Safaricom’s Tech-Powered Future

Safaricom is actually showing that its tentative steps towards becoming a technology-first company rather than a traditional telco are actually investive and real with the Decode 2025 summit, thus redefining and manifesting its commitment to a digital-first, customer-centric tech leadership across Africa.

This year’s Decode event, reaffirmed Safaricom’s position as a key player in the evolving technology space across the continent, with strong messages focusing on inclusive innovation, sustainability, and youth empowerment to shape the future.

Safaricom’s investments in aiming for a comprehensive ecosystem entry deeply resonate with its objectives of using technology as a force for good, in advancing economic growth, financial inclusion, and elevating the standards of digital literacy across the region.

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