Safaricom held its inaugural investors' day on Wednesday at the Carnivore Grounds to update stakeholders on its journey to become a purpose-led technology company by 2025.

Themed "Driving Purpose-Led Growth", the hybrid investor day brought together the investor community, analysts and regulatory bodies, including representation from the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) and the Capital Markets Authority (CMA).

Over 100 investors were in attendance both in person and online.

Safaricom PLC CEO, Peter Ndegwa (right) interacts with ELDOWAS MD, Peter Biwott (centre) during Investor Day at Carnivore grounds. Also present is, Safaricom Chief Enterprise Business Officer, Cynthia Kropac (second right), Safaricom PLC Lead- IOT Business, Jerry Teka (second left) and ELDOWAS IT Lead, Julius Langat. PHOTO/SAFARICOM

During the forum, Safaricom executives briefed the audience on its vision and strategic opportunities around its key business areas including sustainable business and social impact, financial services, big data, technology, and enterprise business opportunities for both private and public sector. 

Investors were also taken through a detailed progress update of Safaricom Ethiopia.

Additionally, there were experiential demonstrations that showcased different products across all the business segments and brought to life key innovations that the businesses have implemented, which gave the investors a “hands on feel”.

The event also provided an opportunity for the investors to engage firsthand with the senior leadership teams for both Kenya and Ethiopia through speed networking sessions.

While speaking during the event, Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa expressed the telco’s excitement to host the first investor day.

Ndegwa said the event provided a platform for Safaricom to engage its stakeholders, investors and analysts or to drive deeper understanding of its strategy, operation model, plans and vision.

"We are excited to host our first-ever investors day, which is an important platform for us to engage with our stakeholders, including investors and analysts, to drive a deeper understanding of our strategy, operating model, execution plans and our vision as we strive to fully transform into a technology company by 2025," Ndegwa said.

"At Safaricom, we are committed to driving purpose-led growth, which means transforming lives through innovation and technology for a better society."

Ndegwa also said Safaricom believes its commitment to purpose-led growth will not only create long-term value for its shareholders, but also good for its customers and the communities it serves. 

“As we delved deeper into our purpose commitments and our journey to date, we affirmed our belief in meeting our targets,” Ndegwa added.

Safaricom Telecommunications Ethiopia PLC CEO, Anwar Soussa, shared insights on the opportunities for the company’s growth in Ethiopia, leveraging on innovation and its quality of services, including internet connectivity.

According to Soussa, Ethiopia offers an opportunity to grow the business to Kenya’s level in a decade with the high its population and financial inclusion.

“With a population of approximately 120 million people and financial inclusion at about 35 per cent, 57 per cent mobile penetration and annual inward remittance of about $4.2 billion, Ethiopia offers a great opportunity to grow the business to the Kenya level in 10 years,” said Soussa.

“Our growth trajectory is even more exciting for us as we look forward to offering financial services through M-PESA. We are finalizing our commercial and technical readiness and we expect to launch operations within the upcoming financial year.”


Anwar further noted that as of February 2023, Safaricom Telecommunications Ethiopia PLC had penetrated around 10 per cent of the population translating to over 11 million people, had 847 network sites in 25 cities, had onboarded 28,000 retailers, 103 distributor shops and 5,000 acquisition agents.

The company had also crossed the 2 million mark in customer gross adds. Additionally, voice and data usage had averaged 64 minutes and 1.9 GB respectively per customer in a month.

Safaricom's investor forum is part of the company's efforts to engage with its business partners and stakeholders about its operations, strategies, and impact.