At Safaricom’s CEO Awards, 980 finalists gathered to celebrate a simple truth: excellence isn’t about following the playbook – it’s about rewriting it entirely.

The theme said it all: Reimagining What’s Possible. On an evening that marked five years of the Group CEO Spirit of Safaricom Awards, the teams and individuals who took to the stage proved that reimagination is more than a buzzword: it’s a mandate.

This year’s awards arrived at a pivotal moment. Safaricom turned 25 in October 2025, M-PESA reached 18, and the business surpassed 50 million customers in Kenya and 10 million in Ethiopia. But the biggest reason to celebrate is the people behind those numbers – colleagues who embody the company’s EVP: I Am Safaricom: a force for good, creating what’s next.

Across categories spanning Mission Critical, Spirit of Safaricom, Health and Safety, Diversity and Inclusion, and Leadership, the 2025 awards showcased what happens when you challenge the status quo.

Volunteer & Corporate Social Responsibility

Winner: Women In Technology

The Women in Technology (WIT) initiative is celebrated for closing the gender gap in tech and building a sustainable talent pipeline. Through programmes spanning childhood curiosity to career readiness, WIT empowered over 4 000 girls and young women. Kids in Tech introduced STEM through LEGO Robotics for 55 children, while Tech4Teens inspired girls aged 14–18 to explore STEM pathways through the Technovation Challenge and Young Scientists Kenya competition. ElevateHer connected 600+ colleagues through mentorship and leadership sessions, with one earning a global TechWomen Fellowship. Campus2Career supported 90 interns with workplace readiness skills.

Mission Critical – Business Growth

Winner: Employee Super App Team (Safaricom PLC)

The Employee Super App team transformed employee productivity through a mobile-first platform that consolidates everyday tasks – approvals, airtime top-ups, parking – into one seamless experience. With 12 self-service journeys and Gen AI chatbots handling HR and IT queries, it’s a productivity revolution.

Winner: PayPal Wallet Integration Team (M-PESA Africa)

In M-PESA Africa, the PayPal Wallet Direct Integration team transformed cross-border payments for 68 million M-PESA customers. Building the solution entirely in-house, they enabled real-time wallet-to-wallet connectivity, eliminating delays and complexity. For a customer sending money across borders, the change is seamless.

Winner: Clement Gitome, Architectural Design Leadership (M-PESA Africa)

Individual excellence shone through Clement’s work. Faced with fragmented legacy APIs and a 35% transaction success rate, Clement redesigned critical infrastructure across M-PESA OpenAPI, PAPSS and PayPal integrations. His modular, cloud-compatible architecture eliminated redundancy, improved scalability and streamlined partner onboarding. It’s the kind of technical leadership that doesn’t make headlines, but makes everything else possible.

Winner: Delivering AirFiber & FTTH Connectivity for Businesses and Homes (Safaricom Ethiopia)

The team turned market challenges into strategic advantage. Operating in a market dominated by a single incumbent, they built and operationalised two national fixed broadband platforms within 12 months. Speed, agility and determination redefined what’s achievable in a competitive landscape.

Mission Critical – Cost Leadership

Winner: Exiting Oracle ULA Team

Cost leadership isn’t about cutting corners. It’s about strategic boldness. The Exiting Oracle ULA team proved that by making a decision that transformed both cost efficiency and technology resilience. Facing a costly Oracle Unlimited Licence Agreement renewal – KSh 5.4 billion across Kenya and Ethiopia, with annual support fees of KSh 780 million – the team chose a different path. They exited the ULA, reducing dependency on expensive legacy systems and freeing resources for innovation. It’s the kind of move that requires conviction, collaboration and clarity.

Winner: Hub Partner Onboarding Acceleration Team (M-PESA Africa)

The Hub Partner Onboarding Acceleration team delivered similar impact. By reducing international remittance onboarding from two years to three months, they didn’t just save time – they created the M-PESA Hub, an OpenAPI-powered platform where partners integrate once to access Kenya, Tanzania, the DRC, Lesotho and Mozambique. One framework, five markets, exponential potential.

Winner: Driving Cost Optimisation and Operational Efficiency Team (Safaricom Ethiopia)

In Ethiopia, the team combined vendor renegotiations, insourcing of critical services, SLA optimisation and in-house development to accelerate EBITDA breakeven. Strategic thinking, executed with discipline.

Spirit of Safaricom – Purpose

Winner: Digitising Healthcare Team

The Digital Health Tribe led Kenya’s Universal Health Coverage digitisation through the transformative Digitising Healthcare initiative. In partnership with Kenya’s Ministry of Health, they built a National Health Information Exchange – a secure, interoperable data backbone connecting 17 500 facilities and 173 000 practitioners. It’s the infrastructure behind Universal Health Coverage, and it’s changing lives at scale.

Winner: Tilahun Berhanu, Operational Excellence and Business Continuity (Safaricom Ethiopia)

Individual recognition went to Tilahun, whose Operational Excellence and Business Continuity work restored over 90% network availability in Amhara and Afar regions under extreme security challenges. Through proactive risk management and cross-functional collaboration, Tilahun ensured uninterrupted customer service and employee safety. Purpose isn’t always glamorous. Sometimes it’s resilience under pressure.

Spirit of Safaricom – Customer Obsession

Winner: Uberizing Field Service Team

The Uberizing Field Service team celebrated the Fixed IT colleagues for transforming customer experience. They introduced real-time tracking within the Field Service Management platform, giving customers visibility and control. AI-driven scheduling now assigns technicians based on proximity, skill and urgency, supported by automated ETA notifications and predictive maintenance analytics.

Winner: Physical Security Access Enhancement Team (M-PESA Africa)

The Physical Security Access Enhancement initiative by the M-PESA Africa Cyber Red Team addressed a critical vulnerability in the physical access card system. Through strong leadership and collaboration, the team implemented a multilayered security strategy, securing over 1 000 critical access points with biometric readers, PIN-enabled keypads and dual authentication protocols.

Spirit of Safaricom – Innovation

Winner: AI-Powered Anomaly Detection Team

Safaricom’s Internal Audit Automation team pioneered an AI-driven solution to safeguard customer trust and ensure ethical billing practices. Addressing Out-of-Bundle data billing anomalies, the team developed and deployed a machine learning model trained on three years of historical data, analysing over 100 behavioural and transactional parameters. Innovation, in service of integrity.

Winner: Annsonia Wanjugu, Automation (M-PESA Africa)

Annsonia’s journey at M-PESA Africa embodies innovation and impact. Rising from intern to Enterprise Systems Specialist, she created M-HUB Intranet – a centralised platform for HR, policies, audits and governance, serving over 400 employees with 100% uptime. She automated the contractor timesheet process, reducing turnaround from seven days to 24–48 hours, and strengthened branding through in-house design and editorial contributions, delivering 100% cost savings.

Spirit of Safaricom – Collaboration

Winner: Fintech 2.0 Team

The Fintech 2.0 migration might be the most technically complex achievement of the year. The team migrated M-PESA from G2 to a distributed platform now handling 6 000 transactions per second, with capacity to scale. Zero data loss. Robust cybersecurity hardening. Precise access controls. Rigorous testing across functionality, performance and integration. It’s the kind of mission-critical transformation that safeguards Kenya’s digital economy, and it required flawless collaboration.

Health, Safety and Wellness

Winner: One Helmet Safety Initiative Team

The One Helmet Safety Initiative in the Greater Western Region emerged from tragedy. After a November 2024 accident claimed a colleague’s life and injured two passengers, colleagues formed groups to collectively fund helmet purchases for more than 200 employees within eight weeks. It’s peer-led, lifesaving and a testament to culture as a driver of change.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Winner: Inua Jamii Team

The Inua Jamii team delivered equity through innovation. In partnership with the Ministry of Labour and eCitizen, they developed the Universal Payments and Disbursement Platform, enabling 1.67 million vulnerable Kenyans– elderly persons, orphans and persons with disabilities – to access monthly government stipends safely and conveniently via M-PESA agents. To ensure inclusion, the team activated 400 000 new mobile lines for previously excluded citizens.

Leadership Award

Winner: Maxwell Thumi

Maxwell took home the Leadership Award for a career defined by impact. From graduate trainee to Senior Manager for Mission Delivery and Strategic Execution, he shaped the Regional Sales and Operations competency framework, led user research for Bonga, managed $25 million in operating spend, delivered KES 300 million in acquisition savings and KES 1 billion in dealer franchise brand value, negotiated Safaricom’s first trademark revenue share agreement with M-Gas, and secured over $50 million in savings through 4G and 5G spectrum acquisitions. He translates vision into results.

Special Group CEO Award

Winners: Safaricom Safety Reset & Safaricom Kikao Project

The Special Group CEO Award recognised two initiatives. The Safaricom Safety Reset reinforced the company’s commitment to well-being, while Safaricom Kikao made home ownership accessible through a sustainable revolving mortgage fund. Launched in November 2025 after rigorous financial modelling and bank negotiations, Kikao is already attracting hundreds of colleagues.

The force behind what’s next

Across 980 finalists – 23 teams and two individuals from Safaricom Kenya, three teams and two individuals from M-PESA Africa, and two teams and one individual from Safaricom Ethiopia – the 2025 CEO Awards showcased one truth: excellence is collective.

These stories are proof that our vision – to be Africa’s leading purpose-led TechCo – is being built one audacious idea, one collaboration, one customer outcome at a time.

For Vodacom Group, Safaricom’s momentum reflects the power of our shared mission: connecting for a better future. Whether it’s financial services scaling to 120 million customers, connectivity leadership driving smartphone penetration beyond 75%, or operational efficiency through technology and partnerships, the work happening in Nairobi, Addis Ababa and across East Africa is writing the playbook for the continent.

Reimagining is what happens when all our colleagues across eight markets refuse to accept limitations. It’s the force behind what’s next.