PHILADELPHIA, USA, 8TH OCTOBER 2019: Safaricom’s M-PESA has been recognized as one of the Top 10 Most Influential Finance Projects of the last 50 years by Project Management Institute (PMI) in its 2019 Most Influential Projects list.

The 12-year old service further stood out by being recognized among the Top 50 Most Influential Projects in the last five decades. More than 1,000 projects were considered by a group of 400 leaders in the global project management community, including PMI chapter leaders and members, as well as academics and industry experts.

“We are honored to receive this accolade and global recognition which is a true testament to our impact on society. This recognition further underlines M-PESA’s commitment to our customers and its transformation to the country which has seen financial inclusion in Kenya grow by more than 50 percent in the last 12 years to stand at more than 82 percent today,” said Michael Joseph, CEO Safaricom.

To meet the standards of recognition, the project list identified efforts that changed the world, shaped lives, and altered the DNA of the organizations and the companies that launched them.

The list is part of PMI’s 50th-anniversary celebration that includes various activities to recognize the important role project management has played over the past five decades and celebrate where the profession is going.

In addition to its contribution to the growth in financial inclusion in the country, M-PESA has also been credited with financial transformation. In 2017, economists from MIT and Georgetown University found that M-PESA lifted more than 195,000 Kenyan families from extreme poverty by empowering customers with the agency to receive money from any other phone user in the country.

“This recognition reflects the incredible progress we have made in the project management profession and demonstrates how the fabric of our world has been shaped and continues to be shaped, by the hard work of bringing ideas to life. This list demonstrates PMI’s vision of how excellence in project execution will be critical in meeting the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow,” said Sunil Prashara, President and CEO of Project Management Institute.

M-PESA’s impact extends through its ecosystem of more than 1,100 suppliers, 400 active dealers and more than 167,000 agents who benefit directly from the service. It has also contributed up to KES 75 billion in revenue to Safaricom and has grown to serve more than 26 million active customers today.

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Going forward, Equity will present itself as a unified brand, with one basket of products and services under one roof; ranging from banking to insurance and investment. From an identity perspective, the new logo now features “Equity” without an entity name such as Group, Bank, Insurance, or Investment Bank.

Commenting on the move, Equity Group CEO and Managing Director Dr. James Mwangi noted that the refreshed positioning follows an extensive three-year process of sounding out its current and future customer segments.

“The evolution of our brand is an important part of our strategy for continued market leadership as well as being integral to the promise we made to all of our stakeholders when we began our journey of transformation to modernize and do all we can to get closer to and better serve our customers,” he said.

“We are proud of the role Equity has continued to play in the growth and prosperity of Kenya and its people. Our brand has carried us through a disruptive and trailblazing 35 years’ period. During this period, we have evolved from a small building society to a leading bank in East and Central Africa. We have become a leading digital bank while our social impact investments hold promise to secure our young people as our future servant leaders. The refreshed brand identity reflects the future we envision, one which communicates our global capability, strong heritage, innovative culture and agile business model that will carry and give the brand momentum to scale its strengths across Africa and the world,” Dr. James
Mwangi added.

The refreshed look will first roll out in Kenya and eventually in all other markets where the Group has established its presence including Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and now, Zambia, Mozambique and Ethiopia.

Equity maintains that the fresh identity matches the new realities, business model, customer segments and preferences and the evolving digital space; enabling it to focus on key areas that will see it remain relevant to the diverse and current consumer needs. This, it adds, will be achieved through spurring economic growth by empowering consumers; businesses and enterprises through innovative solutions, infusing digital capabilities at all touchpoints while nurturing existing and building new relationships.

In a bid to unlock new opportunities within the growing digital banking space, Equity will continually focus on operational efficiencies, driven through innovations and re-engineering of its value chain. Customers will be further enabled to interact with the bank on self-service channels of mobile and internet devices or on the 3rd party low variable cost infrastructure of over 46,000 agents and over 27,000 merchants.

“In developing this identity, we emphasize that our customers come first and that our primary focus is to ensure we are prepared and well positioned to meet all the needs of our stakeholders in the most effective and seamless manner,” said Dr. Mwangi.

“From tomorrow you will see the new signage in all our branches, as part of our refurbishment plan to modernize and update its distribution network which includes branches, ATMs online platforms and third-party outlets such as Agent and merchant locations,” noted
Dr. Mwangi.

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