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36 Vodafone Group Plc
Annual Report 2013

Sustainable business

Improving lives

around the world

Vodafone’s strategic focus on emerging markets,

enterprise, data and new services brings signiicant
opportunities to align our business growth with our
goal to be a sustainable business, by contributing to
resource eficiency, energy and carbon reduction,
and sustainable development.

The global footprint of our telecoms network, M-Pesa continues to grow. New services
our signiicant presence in emerging markets include a savings product, M-Shwari, enabling
and our long track record as an innovator people in Kenya to save as little as KES1
in mobile communications, enable us to make shillings (less than 1 pence) and a funeral
an important contribution to socio-economic insurance plan in Tanzania, both of which
development. This is underpinned by our further drive the inancial inclusion of people
strong commitment to operating responsibly with very limited resources. There are over
and ethically. 18.1 million active users of Vodafone’s M-Pesa,
Our consumers and government and up from 14.4 million a year ago. (See page 27)
Connected Worker research enterprise customers face signiicant Vodafone’s M2M solutions connect machines
Our Connected Worker research, explores how challenges, ranging from food shortages to the internet, transforming them into
mobile technology can be used to make and ageing populations, to lack of access intelligent devices that exchange real time
organisations more productive and eficient, while to communications and inancial services. information. This opens up new possibilities
improving the quality of life for workers in emerging Mobile technology has become a vital for how businesses are run, as well as the
markets. Findings across 12 markets highlight the
potential for six workforce management solutions to tool for improving people’s livelihoods and opportunity to reduce running costs and
boost workers’ livelihoods by US$7.7 billion by 2020, quality of life. carbon emissions.
while enabling a further US$30.6 billion in
commercial beneits to organisations, through Delivering transformational services In 2013, we continued to establish Vodafone
improved productivity. as a leading M2M technology provider, offering
A 2012 report by Deloitte and the GSMA found new end-to-end services, including remote
that a 10% expansion in mobile penetration energy monitoring solutions.
leads to a 4.2% increase in economic
productivity in emerging markets. As 68% Our carbon-reducing applications for M2M
of our customers live in these markets, are wide-ranging, from improving leet
our efforts to extend the coverage of our management performance, to enabling
networks creates tangible socio-economic smart energy grids. We now have contracts
beneits, while simultaneously building our in place to supply over 9.5 million M2M
customer base. connections to speciically enable carbon
reductions through energy and fuel savings
We continue to explore new market for our customers.
opportunities to bring further sustainable
beneits to societies through new partnerships Fostering enterprise and partnership
and the development of products and services In sectors such as agriculture and health,
that focus on: agriculture, education, inance, we are developing commercial solutions
health, low carbon products and services and in partnership with governments and NGOs,
smart working. to deliver a range of business and sustainable
beneits to society, as well as further growing
Building up to commercial scale our business.
Our aim is to create commercially viable
services that can be scaled up and rolled out In 2013, we announced two new strategic three-
across different markets, adding value for year partnerships. The irst, with the US Agency
customers, commercial partners, our business for International Development (‘USAID’) and the
and society. Our mobile money transfer NGO, TechnoServe, aims to reduce poverty and
solution, M-Pesa, and our M2M platforms are increase resilience for half a million smallholder
already well established, and work continues farmers across Kenya, Mozambique and
to extend their positive impacts. Tanzania. This will be achieved through the
introduction of simple but innovative mobile
technologies, including a registration system for
growers, information on crop prices, collection
days and quality reminders.