Safaricom

Safaricom PLC is a listed Kenyan mobile network operator headquartered at Safaricom House in Nairobi, Kenya. It is the largest telecommunications provider in Kenya, and one of the most profitable companies in the East and Central Africa region. The company offers mobile telephony, mobile money transfer, consumer electronics, ecommerce, cloud computing, data, music streaming, and fibre optic services. It is most renowned as the home of M-PESA, a mobile banking SMS-based service. Safaricom controls approximately 65.7% percent of the Kenyan market as of 2024 with a subscriber base estimated at approximately 47 million. In July 24th 2025, CEO Peter Ndegwa in a statement said that the company has surpassed 50 million customers on its network. He attributed this to the deep connection the company had built with Kenyans over the past two and a half decades. The company also recently hit 10 million customers in Ethiopia, where it entered in 2022 and has been expanding its regional footprint in the entire East Africa region. In terms of voice market and SMS market share Safaricom controls 69.2% and 92.2% respectively. Safaricom was formed in 1997 as a fully owned subsidiary of Telkom Kenya. In May 2000, Vodafone Group PLC of the United Kingdom acquired a 40% stake and management responsibility for the company. In 2008, the government offered 25% of its shares to the public through the Nairobi Securities Exchange. Safaricom was ranked as Africa's Best Employer, 67th in the World by the Forbes Global 200 list of the World's Best Employers. In March 2018, Safaricom was ranked as the #1 company to work for in the annual list of BrighterMonday Best 100 Companies to Work for in Kenya, according to career professionals and job seekers. In 2019 Safaricom partnered with Shared Value Africa Initiative to host the Africa Shared Value...