How Safaricom's Sustainability Reporting Sparked a New Corporate Ethic Across Kenya’s Boardrooms
For fourteen years, Safaricom has been documenting its footprint with unusual candor, shaping how companies across Kenya now account for the real costs and benefits of growth.
When Safaricom released its first Sustainable Business Report in 2012, few Kenyan companies were talking seriously about purpose. The focus was still on revenue growth and market share. Fourteen years later, the company has turned that early experiment into a full framework for how a business can grow while measuring its impact on society and the environment.
This year’s report, “Anchored on Purpose, Accelerating a Digital Future,” is not just another milestone. It represents a turning point in how Kenya’s largest company defines value. The headline figure is huge: a True Value of KSh 1.1 trillion, which is sixteen times the company’s financial profit. But beyond the number lies a deeper shift. Safaricom is learning to account for what cannot be captured in a balance sheet — trust, access, inclusion, and long-term resilience.
From Compliance to Conviction
In the early years, sustainability reporting was about meeting global benchmarks and ticking boxes. Over time, it became something closer to a moral compass. What began as a list of environmental initiatives and corporate donations evolved into a broader understanding of how business decisions ripple through society.
By developing the “True Value” model, Safaricom started to quantify its total footprint, both positive and negative. This approach forced the leadership to ask harder questions about the meaning of growth. Who benefits most? Who gets left out? What can technology do to close, rather than widen, social gaps?
That reflection led to visible change. The company now tracks carbon emissions as carefully as revenue. Recycling rates hit 99 percent last year, with 190 tons of e-waste collected. More than 830,000 trees were planted across eight counties, involving over 4,000 community members.
The focus on governance and diversity has also matured. Women now make up nearly half of Safaricom’s leadership team. Persons with disabilities represent more than 3 percent of employees. And digital accessibility is now built into new products from the start rather than added later as a fix.
A new language of accountability
The tone of the sustainability reports has changed too. The early editions often sounded like charity updates. Today, the writing is more technical and transparent, filled with measurable data and verified results.
The company now aligns its operations with nine Sustainable Development Goals and uses international standards like the Global Reporting Initiative and IFRS to guide disclosure. It has also earned ISO certification for privacy management, signaling stronger data protection for customers.
Dr. Peter Ndegwa, Safaricom’s Group CEO, describes the mission simply: “Transforming lives by connecting people to people, people to opportunity, and people to knowledge.” The difference is that this purpose now comes with structure and evidence. Inside the organization, fifty sustainability champions drawn from various departments ensure these principles shape decisions at every level.
Technology as social infrastructure
Across all fourteen editions of the report, one theme remains constant – the belief that technology can drive inclusion. From M-PESA’s financial revolution to Digifarm’s credit lifelines for smallholder farmers, Safaricom has shown how digital tools can serve real social needs.
In the past year, Digifarm disbursed KSh 945 million in small loans, with more than one-third going to women. The Spark Fund Accelerator supported nine early-stage startups working on community-driven solutions. These may seem like small steps, but together they form a quiet ecosystem of local innovation.
Safaricom’s expansion into Ethiopia adds another layer. As the company rolls out 4G and 5G networks there, it is exporting not only digital access but also the sustainability principles refined over years of reporting.
Redefining leadership in business
Safaricom’s journey has not been free of tension. Balancing rapid growth with deep accountability is never easy. Yet that tension has been productive. It has kept the company grounded in self-evaluation rather than self-promotion.
Over time, sustainability reporting has become a test of integrity. Each report is public, detailed, and open to scrutiny. In a region where transparency can be rare, Safaricom’s willingness to publish its social and environmental impact alongside its financials has set a precedent.
The lesson extends beyond telecoms. It suggests that sustainability can no longer sit in a corporate side office. It must sit at the center of strategy, shaping how companies grow and how they define success.
Looking ahead
As Safaricom turns twenty-five, the focus is shifting from measuring impact to deepening it. The company now faces a harder question: how to make sure the trillion-shilling value it creates truly reaches everyone. That means closing digital divides, empowering rural communities, and making sure persons with disabilities have equal access to the digital future.
Fourteen years of sustainability reporting have taught the company one thing above all — purpose is not about slogans. It is about consistency, humility, and proof.
Go to TECHTRENDSKE.co.ke for more tech and business news from the African continent.
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