Safaricom, the Kenya’s most profitable Telecommunications Company, has decided to develop a US$ 32m secondary school that will accommodate up to 1,000 needy students in a 50-acre piece of land in Thika, Kenya.
Safaricom’s chief executive Bob Collymore confirmed the reports and said that construction of the project, to be dubbed M-Pesa Academy, has already commenced and it is targeted for completion in early 2016.
Bob further indicated that besides classrooms and accommodation blocks, the construction will also involve setting up a conference facility and a farm where students will have the opportunity of growing some of the food that they will consume.
The school will be built and owned by the M-Pesa Foundation, a charity organisation established by Safaricom in 2010.
Safaricom has added to a list of blue chip companies that are spending lots of money and resources to construct institutions and help educate disadvantaged children, among other social responsibility initiatives globally recognized as important initiatives for firms’ success.
Safaricom Limited is engaged in the provision of mobile phone services, fixed line wireless telecommunication, Internet and data services. The initiative to construct the school is among many others established by organizations in Kenya to help in educating the disadvantaged, among them the Equity’s Wings to Fly project, Kenya Commercial Bank’s initiative to sponsor 238 students from poor backgrounds after KCPE, and other initiatives by firms such as Co-operative Bank.
