MTN Group’s efforts to advance social development in its markets through the integration of sustainable business practices into day-to-day activities, is yielding positive outcomes, according to the company.

The company’s Sustainability Report for the year ended 31 December 2014 was released on 26 March 2015 and details how MTN’s voice and data products and services are creating sustainable economic value in its markets.

MTN Group President and CEO, Sifiso Dabengwa, states in the report that a concerted effort is being made to adapt the business in order to enable digital innovation to drive socio-economic change. “The ubiquitous availability of mobile devices means people can now drive digital innovation from anywhere in the world. This level of transformation demands a shift in thinking, a change in traditional ways of working and delivering services,” he said.

For its part, MTN has made significant developments in enabling digital inclusion and access to basic financial, m-health and m-insurance services across MTN’s markets. In this regard, 1,9 million affordable handsets were made available to customers, and 4 000 farmers received payment for cotton produce via MTN Mobile Money in 2014. In Nigeria, MTN offers Y’ello Life insurance for affordable cover to individuals and Y’ello Biz for easily accessible small business insurance protection, while m-health services are available in in Afghanistan, Cameroon, Ghana, Rwanda, Uganda, South Africa, Yemen and Zambia.

Also contained in the report is information on how MTN is contributing to sustainable societies by ensuring safe and healthy living and working environments for employees, customers, communities and operations, as well as the strides made by MTN towards becoming a more eco-responsible business.

To this end, the company reduced and avoided more than 29 000 tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2014, which is the equivalent of taking 3 249 diesel cars off the road for one year. The report states that in the year, MTN realised R49,6 million savings from energy efficiency and green energy investments. In addition, 326 tonnes of electronic and electrical waste was handed over to small and medium sized e-waste handlers and recyclers.

Dabengwa states that while progress has been made, the company has a long way to go before comfortably addressing all of its material sustainability prerogatives, and MTN will continue to focus on these.

“We will continue to improve our environmental governance and management efforts to mitigate our physical, financial and regulatory risks and impact. We also want to further invest in digital skills development to improve our technical capabilities for more accessible, affordable and quality communications for our customers. Business partnerships remain a critical element of ensuring we can have a positive impact around scale and scope, and to extend the benefits of the digital society to all sectors,” he said.

The full MTN Group Limited Annual Sustainability Report for 2014 is available on www.MTN.com.