Safaricom dismissed 118 employees for internal fraud during the financial year ended March 31, 2026, even as the telecommunications operator reported an 82 percent drop in overall fraud incidents. The disclosures emerged alongside a surge in M-PESA mobile money usage and rising operational carbon emissions in the company’s latest annual disclosures.
East Africa’s largest telecommunications operator let go of 118 workers during the 2026 financial year following internal investigations across its telecommunications and mobile money businesses. The dismissals mark a steady climb from previous years, rising from 28 terminations in 2021, 95 in 2024, and 113 in 2025. Safaricom Group CEO Peter Ndegwa and Karen Basiye, Director Sustainable Business and Social Impact, Safaricom Foundation, launched the company’s 15th Sustainable Business Report at the Michael Joseph Centre in Nairobi on October 27, 2026. Within the document, five material matters were outlined: Protecting Our Planet, Empowering Our People, Connecting People and Communities, Building Trust in the Digital Economy, and Leading Responsibly.
The company also referred 14 cases to law enforcement agencies, doubling the seven referrals recorded the previous period, while issuing three disciplinary warnings after recording none a year earlier. Internal misconduct leading to termination included policy breaches, unauthorized access to customer systems, theft, falsification of company records, and asset misappropriation. During FY26, Safaricom expanded its staff headcount to a total of 5,648 employees, which consisted of 2,804 women and 2,844 men.
Fraud Monitoring and Recoveries Across M-PESA
While employee dismissals climbed, Safaricom reported that overall fraud incidents fell 82 percent against an internal target of a 90 percent reduction. The telco recovered 46 percent of reported fraud losses during the review period.
Proactive monitoring and data analytics also enabled the company to recover $7.34 million (Ksh953 million) linked specifically to inflated agent commissions. That figure decreased from KSh1.7 billion recovered in the prior year. However, the published report does not establish a direct connection between the staff dismissals and the commission recoveries.
Fraud remained the most frequently cited concern raised through the company’s anonymous ethics hotline. Beyond internal risks, Safaricom identified physical social engineering as the leading fraud vector targeting its subscribers, posing acute challenges as digital financial services expand.
Our 2026 report reflects the value created across our business, communities and the environment, while outlining the work ahead: responding to rising energy demand, reducing value-chain emissions and strengthening digital trust.
Peter Ndegwa, Group Chief Executive Officer
M-PESA Transaction Volumes and Wealth Management Scale
The security crackdown coincided with massive growth in customer activity across the M-PESA platform. Safaricom processed 46.4 billion transactions worth Ksh41.68 trillion in the year ended March 2026. Transaction volumes increased by 25.1 percent from 37.1 billion the previous year, while total value grew 8.9 percent from Ksh38.27 trillion. Contributing 45.6 per cent of the service revenue for Safaricom Kenya, M-PESA brought in an increased revenue of Ksh 182.7 billion, representing a 13.4 per cent growth overall.
The heavy traffic translated to an average of roughly 127 million transactions daily, or approximately 88,000 transactions every minute. Growth was supported by the Fintech 2.0 modernization program, which increased platform processing capacity from 4,500 to 6,000 transactions per second while achieving 99.999 percent availability. Safaricom’s subscriber base spans 71.56 million users across Ethiopia and Kenya, broken down into 13.6 million in Ethiopia and 57.9 million in Kenya.
- Merchant businesses accepting M-PESA payments rose to approximately 3.13 million, up from 1.8 million in FY2025.
- Consumer credit customers grew to 17.7 million, alongside 18.1 million active Fuliza borrowing customers.
- Wealth management active customers reached 2.2 million, with assets under management expanding to KSh21.1 billion from KSh9.8 billion.
Operational Emissions and Solar Infrastructure Rollout
Safaricom’s operational footprint expanded alongside its financial metrics, with combined Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions in Kenya increasing by 9.1 percent to 56,354.12 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. Direct Scope 1 emissions rose 12.3 percent to 33,853.86 tonnes, driven largely by cooling-system refrigerants and diesel generator usage for backup power.
Emissions attributed to refrigerants surged, with R407A emissions rising from 257.68 tonnes to 1,912.23 tonnes and R410A increasing from 2,339.58 tonnes to 4,568.54 tonnes. Meanwhile, emissions from diesel-powered vehicles declined from 3,473.35 tonnes to 3,089.50 tonnes, and emissions from petrol vehicles fell from 232.15 tonnes to 195.28 tonnes. Scope 2 emissions from purchased electricity increased 4.8 percent to 22,500.26 tonnes.
The company’s transition to renewable energy also faced headwinds. Safaricom closed the financial year with 2,028 solar-powered tower sites after adding 596 locations, and about 800 sites underwent battery and rectifier upgrades.
