Safaricom Plc contributed Sh601 billion to the Kenyan economy in the financial year ending March 2019.
The contribution was helped by economic value made by the telecommunication firm which grew to Sh317.61 billion from Sh288.59 billion.
The firm also reported a financial value in earnings to shareholders rose to Sh62.49 billion from Sh55.28 billion and social externalities rise by more than Sh200 billion through M-Pesa, jobs and social investments.
Environment externalities, however, rose to Sh412.3 million from Sh258.5 million due to a 3.8 per cent increase in carbon emissions.
“The true value assessment shows that the value created for Kenyan society in March 2019 was Sh601 billion, 10.7 per cent from the contribution made in the same period ending 2018."
"It was 9.6 times greater than financial profit made in the year,” head of corporate sustainability Sanda Ojiambo said ahead of Sustainability Report 2019 to be released on Thursday.
The contribution to GDP was 6.3 per cent, indicating a marginal decline of 0.2 per cent that Ojiambo attributed to economic shrink in the year.
The report indicates that the economic contribution was supported highly through the creation of jobs and supply chain in indirect activities such as suppliers, airtime dealers and distributors.
This coupled with innovations of commercial products such as digital platforms for farming (DigiFarm) and healthcare (M-Tiba) that have seen the creation of indirect jobs.
During the period, the firm reported having created 978,633 both directly and indirectly from 897,372 in 2018.
Out of this, Safaricom sustained 187,756 employees.
The company has contented in the job growth owing to increased unemployment and a large number of a workforce of about out one million joining the market every year.
According to a survey by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, 7 million Kenyans are unemployed.
The Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed company made a net profit of Sh62.5billion and a 7.1 per cent growth in total revenue growing to Sh250.96 billion.
Dismissals for fraud were 18, representing 4.3 per cent improvement from the last period.
“We are looking to build a partnership with people to enable development and in turn offer business through volumes,” she added.
