#6
SAFARICOM
According to the Business Insider (BI) Africa, Safaricom is the most valuable brand in Kenya and the larger East African region, valued at KES 87 billion as at April 2023. Despite high inflation and a volatile global geopolitical environment, the brand has achieved impressive revenue growth and successfully completed the first two years of its five-year strategy, which spells out its vision of becoming a purpose-led technology company by 2025.
By September 2022, Safaricom’s subscriptions had grown to 50.2 million, an increase from 41.9 million the previous year, stamping its position as the market leader. The telco giant now controls 66 percent of Kenya’s mobile market. In October 2022, Safaricom launched services in Ethiopia as part of a consortium including Vodafone, Vodacom, Sumitomo Corporation, and British International Investment.
The consortium paid $ 850 million as a licence fee to operate in the country, with plans to invest another $8 billion over the next 10 years, dubbing this the single largest foreign direct investment in Ethiopia. Until late last year, Ethiopia was a monopoly of the state-owned Ethio Telecom.
For the country’s almost 30 million internet users, merely 25 percent of the total population, the monopoly meant poor connectivity at high costs and low-quality support services. Drawing from a recent report by global technology publication, Rest of World, Safaricom’s penetration has not only given users the option to choose between two competing players, but has also forced Ethio Telecom to improve its services and pricing.
As indicated by British International Investment, which forms part of the consortium, Safaricom currently has over 2.5 million subscribers in Ethiopia, and covers 27 cities. Apart from mobile phone services, which was initially Safaricom’s main offering, the telco has over the years developed and introduced new products and services driven by technology, innovation and a constant hunger to elevate itself in the industry.
For instance, in 2007, the telco launched M-PESA, the first and most successful mobile wallet service in Africa. 16 years after its creation, M-PESA now accounts for nearly half of Safaricom’s total annual revenue, and has drastically evolved its portfolio of offerings.
Safaricom’s home fibre, launched in 2014, grossly improved the concept of fast, reliable and affordable home internet services. Prior to its launch, many Kenyans were forced to visit a cyber cafe to access the web on a desktop.
By October 2022, Safaricom had launched its fifth generation (5G) home broadband service on a commercial basis, designed to provide faster internet speeds, lower latency, and increased capacity compared to the previous generations of wireless technology. Safaricom is the first telco to introduce 5G services in Kenya.
Safaricom also provides various enterprise solutions. These include cloud services, whereby software, hardware and information are provided to one’s business as a metered service over the internet; domain and web hosting; and cybersecurity offerings. To cater to its high value customers, Safaricom introduced Safaricom Platinum, a lifestyle service that offers tailored plans and exclusive discount offers with partners such as EatOut Kenya, Shell and Ticketsasa, through the mySafaricom app.
In an effort to reduce fraud and identity theft, as well as bring down the verification steps required for user identification, Safarcom established a voice biometric authentication service known as Jitambulishe.
An industry first in Kenya, the innovative service allows customers to record a ‘voiceprint’ that can be used to identify them, and hence access various services, such as unlocking an M-PESA account, without the need to divulge sensitive security information to third parties. In terms of entertainment, Safaricom provides music and video streaming services through its Songa and Blaze platforms. These apps offer subscribers access to over 2.5 million songs, with a strong emphasis on supporting local artists that ensures content providers receive 65 percent of revenues generated through royalty payments. Safaricom understands that to be a truly customer-obsessed brand, it must work with professionals who understand how to make customers fall in love with a brand.
Africa, Sales Manager Corporate Aid and Development, Rose Mombo, during the Lipa Na Mpesa Winners Promotion.
This is evident by the telco’s recently appointed Brand and Marketing Director, Ms Zizwe Awuor Vundla. In a recent interview, Ms Vundla explains that in a world full of choices, deliberate efforts should be made to influence a customer to choose one product and/ or service over the other.
“When a consumer wakes up in the morning and makes one of the millions of choices they have to make, I make it obvious that the brand I am selling is the only one for them, and make it obvious why; the benefits, how their lives will change, and how they will be happier using the brand,” the globally-acknowledged brand guru illustrates.
Guided by the superior stewardship of Peter Ndegwa as Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Safaricom has and continues to cement itself as East Africa’s most superior brand, focused on sustainability, customer obsession, digital innovation and most importantly, purpose.
