Safaricom 2018 Sustainable Business Report

51 INTRODUCTION OUR BUSINESS OUR MATERIAL TOPICS STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT 2018 SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS REPORT MOBILE DATA CONTINUES TO GROW FY18 FY17 FY16 FY15 Mobile Data Revenue (KES billion) 36.4 29.3 21.15 14.82 Mobile Data Customers (million)* 17.7 16.6 14.08 11.59 * 30-day active We are satisfied with the growth in mobile data revenue and customers during the year, given the challenging political and economic environment. We increased our mobile data customers (who have been active within the last 30 days) from 16.6 to 17.7 million. Likewise, our revenue from mobile data grew from KES 29.3 to KES 36.4 million, and now accounts for 16.2% of our total service revenue. While year-on-year growth was less than that achieved in FY17, we increased mobile data usage per customer by 56.3%, exceeding our target for FY18 by 10.2%. Among the campaigns we ran during the year were the Funtastic 4Gs web series (pictured is one of the characters, Gina), which highlighted the reliability, speed and coverage of our network, and the Swift Squad , which offers customers advice on how to manage their apps and settings to ensure they get the most out of their bundles and airtime. S D G 8 S D G 9 New hub for innovation An exciting change during the year was the creation of the Safaricom Alpha (Innovation Hub) in April 2017. The new hub was created to build platforms, products and services within various verticals like Health, Education, Agriculture and Payments. The purpose of Safaricom Alpha is to explore long-term opportunities and challenges. The team is innovating for the future and designing and developing products that may only be relevant in three to five years’ time — or even 20 years’ time. Key to note is that in June 2017, Safaricom Alpha supported the Kenya start- up ecosystem. The Spark Fund (our innovation investment fund) closed an investment in iProcure. iProcure is a Nairobi-based start-up working to optimise the agriculture input supply chain in rural Kenya. iProcure’s web and mobile technology solution improves agriculture retailers’ operations. It enables them to manage ordering based on inventory, point of sale activities, and client profiles along with geo-located purchasing patterns, real-time agent performance and transaction analysis, and built-in mobile payments. S D G 8 M-PESA MAKES HEADWAY FY18 FY17 FY16 FY15 M-PESA Revenue (KES billion) 62.9 55.1 41.50 32.63 M-PESA Customers (million)* 20.5 19.0 16.6 13.86 * 30-day active As the preceding table shows, there was a significant amount of activity and movement through the M-PESA mobile money platform during the year, despite the subdued economic conditions. Revenue from the service grew from KES 55.1 million in FY17 to KES 62.9 million during the year and the number of users (active in the last 30 days) increased from 19 to 20.5 million by March 2018.