Safaricom Joins UN Global Compact’s Forward Faster Initiative to Deliver SDG Goals -September 22, 2023 at 05:06 am EDT

Safaricom has joined the UN Global Compact’s Forward Faster initiative, which aims to accelerate private sector action to deliver on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and meet the 2030 Agenda.

The initiative highlights the SDGs on gender, climate action, living wage, water resilience, and finance and investment.

“As much as we are doing a lot in short and long-term investments to integrate ESG into our business practices, there is still some way to go as global challenges such as climate change, the Covid-19 pandemic and conflicts have slowed down momentum on the achievement of some of the goals,” Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa said.

“As the private sector, we can collectively find ways to overcome the challenges through partnerships to fulfil our agenda,” he added.

The telco, which has incorporated nine of the 17 SDGs into its business operations, has in the past rallied CEOs from the region to commit to the African Business Leaders Coalition to address climate change concerns.

Earlier this month, Safaricom obtained a Sh15 billion sustainability-linked loan to strengthen its environmental, social, and governance (ESG) agenda.

The loan will enable the company to diversify its investments as it progresses towards the achievement of key ESG areas.

According to the SDG Progress Report released earlier this year by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, only 15 percent of the SDG targets are on track, while progress on 48 percent of the SDGs is weak and insufficient, and progress has stalled or reversed on 37 percent of the SDGs.

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