Our annual CEO Awards were a brilliant showcase of Vodacom’s Purpose in action, with various individuals and teams recognised for directly contributing to the achievement of our Purpose.

In total, 27 out of the 42 awards were in recognition of work that contributed to our collective Purpose journey, focusing on empowering people, protecting the planet, and maintaining trust. We can all be proud to work for an organisation that puts Purpose at the heart of everything that we do. 

As the Top Employer on the continent for 2024, we celebrate our employees’ remarkable achievements, which embody the Spirit of Vodacom. Initiatives like the CEO Awards play a key role in keeping our employees engaged, boosting morale and fostering a progressive and effective organisational culture.

Congratulations to all our 2024 winners. Thank you for proving that we are an organisation that leads with Purpose.

Individual Awards

Adrian Laubscher, South Africa – Within the COPS environment, Adrian developed a big data model to steer customers to our digital channels. This led to a 1.7 million call reduction and a direct saving of R35 million, while handling over 5.3 million calls. In addition, he developed a multi-SIM framework for Prepaid SIM swaps, simplifying the process for customers and enhancing security.

Alfred Maziya, South Africa – In collaboration with our franchise owners, Alfred spearheaded the creation of a distribution strategy for the Kwika Point of Sale machine. The model has onboarded over three and a half thousand merchants, each with an average trading value of around R14 000 per month. In our insurance business, Alfred’s leadership has led to a remarkable 13% double-digit growth in the retail insurance attachment rate.

Anthony Muriithi, Kenya – Anthony took the initiative to get Safaricom “disability-ready” and ensure an inclusive and accessible environment. His efforts have led to a workplace that makes it easier for people with disabilities to navigate buildings, and an environment where everyone can thrive, contribute and aspire to greatness.

Godfrey Mambo, Tanzania – Godfrey is the visionary founder of Ushirika wa Kiroho, a charitable organisation dedicated to serving the Tanzanian community, with a focus on orphans, people with special needs and the elderly. Godfrey has improved the lives of many, providing essential items such as food, water, clothing and schoolbooks. His efforts epitomise the values of compassion, collaboration and community service that Vodacom stands for.

Grace Njoroge, M-PESA Africa – Grace identified and took end-to-end ownership of a vulnerability in the M-PESA Super App, helping to develop and deploy a permanent fix to enhance the customer experience, improve M-PESA’s digital transformation journey and prevent potential fraud.

Josephine Mushi, Tanzania – Josephine’s commitment to delivering a one-stop shop experience has seen the number of M-PESA app users rise to 950 000 active users. She also led the launch of 30 mini-apps with over 200 000 active users. Thanks to Josephine’s contributions, the M-PESA app now contributes close to 7% of total M-PESA revenue and around 9.5% of the total M-PESA active base.

Moges Yohannes, Ethiopia – Moges developed robust geospatial tools and capabilities for the commercial and technology teams, plotting over 600 area clusters and territories on a digital map, showing sites, critical resources and distribution points of presence. The digital mapping provides great visibility to the teams, enables better decision making, and is further enhanced by reporting that has been developed for every performance aspect across every location.

Monique Alley, South Africa – Monique has been instrumental in launching and growing VodaBucks into the largest loyalty programme in the South African market, with over 12 million active reward customers. This has resulted in increased active days, increased revenue and reduced churn, earning VodaBucks a second place at the prestigious South African Loyalty Awards.

Noha Selemah, Egypt – Noha is passionate about helping those in need and uplifting the lives of those she serves. In the past year, she has dedicated over 200 hours of her time, particularly to the Instant Network Schools programme and the Talimy digital learning platform, where she has made a difference in the lives and education prospects of displaced refugees and disadvantaged locals.

Nola Richards, Group – Nola has built the ESG team into a pan-African centre of excellence, ensuring everyone understands the pivotal roles that they play in delivering the group’s ESG response. Nola has been influential in driving Vodacom’s net zero strategy and several initiatives from ESG assurance, human rights impact assessments, climate scenario and biodiversity assessments, as well as the implementation of external ESG reporting.

Patricia Katshabala Kapenga, DRC – Through the “We Belong” initiative, which embodies our purpose and core values through our Spirit, Patricia’s actions have raised the bar for Vodacom’s leadership to improve the way we recognise and reward staff and care for their well-being, producing a ripple effect on our customer care standards. Her initiatives have significantly increased our organisational agility and set a new standard for collective achievement.

Refiloe Makhesi, Lesotho – Refiloe, a Radio Engineer, raised his hand to take over the project management of our network roll-out in Lesotho. Despite having no formal project management training, he swiftly adapted to his new responsibilities to deliver on our access network roll-out, played a pivotal role in the successful implementation of the AWS cloud migration project, and led the network team to not only get the approval for 5G spectrum use but also to maintain our 5G leadership in Lesotho.

Ruth Osukuku, Kenya – Recognising that girls from marginalised communities face significant barriers to education and opportunities in technology in particular, Ruth has personally mentored over 1 800 girls in navigating the digital world. Under her guidance, some of these girls have developed AI-based applications for the benefit of communities, from a platform to source donors to support education to an application for reporting flooding and a tool for reporting illegal forced marriages.

Senzi Masilela, South Africa – Beyond smashing revenue targets by 171%, Senzi has redefined the customer call resolution process with the C-SOC team to ensure the highest standards of service delivery, leveraging the expertise of various teams to address customer queries effectively. His customer-first attitude has fortified customer relationships and loyalty to cement Vodacom’s reputation as a trusted partner.

Simao Francisco, Mozambique – Simao’s outstanding leadership in organising the first-ever M-PESA FinTalks and 10 Years of M-PESA event in Mozambique brought together around 500 attendees. This hugely successful, innovative event significantly boosted brand awareness for M-PESA, solidifying its position in the Mozambican market. It provided a platform to explore and negotiate potential partnerships and strengthened relationships with regulators.

Preggy Naidoo, South Africa – With the Waterfall access network being critical to Vodacom reaching its fibre target, Preggy identified 22 sites that would get us there swiftly. However, the upfront cost was prohibitive, and through Preggy’s initiative and hard negotiations, we managed to reduce the cost by nearly 80%, resulting in an upfront saving of R5 million. He also delivered the links in record time, ensuring we started generating revenue earlier than expected.

Yara Koura, Egypt – Yara has been instrumental in securing exclusive deals and substantial discounted rates with Video-on-Demand and music content platform providers. This has enabled us to offer real value-for-money deals to customers, directly resulting in an increase in upgrades, content subscription renewals as well as an increase in customer ARPU.