Fraud costs 33 employees their jobs at Safaricom in 2023

Safaricom, Kenya’s leading mobile network operator, has released its annual report for the year 2023, revealing that it dismissed 33 staff members for fraud, an increase from 23 in 2022.

The company also said that it faced increased fraud attempts mainly affecting SIM-swap services, but mitigated them by proactive fraud monitoring and digitising solutions.

The report highlighted the company’s achievements in enhancing its customer experience and innovation, as well as its efforts to protect its customers’ personal data and provide managed security services to its enterprise customers.

“During the year under review, we cemented our reputation as the technology innovation hub in Kenya by enhancing our customer experience through the introduction of Elevated fraud management,” the report stated.

The company said that it employed key performance indicators (KPIs) that were aligned to and supported the delivery of its business strategy, and that it largely achieved its strategic goals for the year. One of the KPIs was fraud prevention, which reached 98% in 2023.

The company also credited its whistle blowing policy for providing a platform for employees, suppliers, dealers and agents to raise concerns regarding any suspected wrongdoing, and said that it reported whistle blowing statistics to the Ethics Committee and the Audit Committee on a quarterly basis.

“We have a whistle blowing policy that provides for an ethics hotline managed by an independent, accredited and external institution. Through the hotline, anonymous reports on unethical/fraudulent behaviour can be made without fear of retaliation from the suspected individuals,” the report said.

The company also acknowledged the challenges posed by the rising incidence and sophistication of fraudsters, and said that it responded by applying artificial intelligence (AI) and anti-money-laundering (AML) technology for fraud detection.

The report also identified some of the opportunities that Safaricom saw in the market, such as protecting its customers’ personal data and supporting its enterprise customers by providing managed security services.