Telco giants Safaricom has been ranked 19th globally on a list rating companies based on how they use profits to help address social challenges.
Safaricom, whose estimated market value is $11,339 million (Ksh1.13 trillion), has been lauded for using its M-Pesa platform to impact millions of lives.
M-Pesa, a money transfer system, was set up by Vodafone for Safaricom and Vodacom in 2007.
Fortune Magazine, an American multinational business magazine says the mobile money transfer service targets more than 30 million customers in 10 countries, mostly in remote areas far from banks.
“More than eight million of those users are in India, where state governments are employing Mpesa to pay pensions to rural retirees, eliminating the delays and crime risks that come with shipping cash,” Fortune explained.
In Kenya, Safaricom relies on the service to drive products such as M-tiba, a service that allows people to send, save and spend funds specifically for medical treatment.
This is the second appearance by Safaricom on the list, with the first being in 2015 where it was ranked #1 beating companies such as Google due to M-Pesa services and the impact it had on the society.
Aside from recognising companies for their positive social impact through its core activities, Fortune prioritizes companies with annual revenues of $1 billion or more then ranks them based on Measurable Social Impact, Business Results,Degree of Innovation and Corporate Integration.
Safaricom is the second telco firm to feature on the Top 50 list, beating heavy global brands such as Microsoft, Apple, Siemens and Deloitte amongst others.
As at May, Safaricom had an additional 2.1 million M-Pesa users with the platform contributing to 28 percent of Safaricom’s Service Revenue.
