Ismailimail is pleased to announce that Roshan, Afghanistan’s leading telecommunications provider has been named one of the 16 Companies Considered ‘Best For The World’ by Forbes Magazine, one of the premier business magazines in the world.
“Our goal was to spearhead economic development and to facilitate greater social cohesion in Afghanistan through the introduction of accessible telecommunications technology.
We believe that the ability to speak with friends and family, wherever they are, is a right that every Afghan deserves.”
– Karim Khoja, CEO Roshan Telecom
All of those efforts have earned Roshan the distinction of being a “Best for the World” honoree by B Lab, an eight-year-old non-profit based in Berwyn, PA that invented the concept of a “Benefit Corporation,” a company that turns a profit while benefiting its workers, its community and the Earth, sometimes at the expense of its owners.
Discover, Explore and Learn more at
About Roshan Telecom
Backed in part by the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED), Roshan has invested more than $550 million inside Afghanistan, making it the country’s single largest investor and taxpayer. It pays nearly double the minimum wage and offers family health benefits including more than two months of maternity leave. It even subsidizes transportation and meals. Some 20% of its workforce of 1,200 is female.
Roshan means “light” in both Pashto and Dari.
Roshan’s slogan: “Nazdik Shodan,” which means “Bringing You Closer.”
For sharing the wealth, Afghanistan’s largest private employer and leading telecommunications company, Roshan, is also a certified B Corporation, which means that it has met rigorous standards for its ethical business practices and its work on social and economic development.
In 2014, Roshan began entering the telecom market in other countries, including Burundi, Uganda, and Tanzania. The company, which is majority owned by the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED), brings telemedicine, e-learning, and mobile money initiatives wherever it goes. In Afghanistan, that meant creating a helpline for teachers, installing solar-powered e-learning centers throughout rural parts of the country, building playgrounds, offering a telemedicine solution to link hospitals to specialists and other resources, and more.
In East Africa, Roshan plans to build up the mobile infrastructure where it doesn’t exist, strengthen it where it’s weak, and above all, keep a commitment to social responsibility front and center.
Discover, Explore and Learn more at http://www.roshan.af/Roshan/About_Roshan/About_Roshan.aspx
About B Lab
Founded by three Stanford buddies – two former basketball apparel entrepreneurs, Jay Coen Gilbert and Bart Houlihan, and Andrew Kassoy, who used to manage Michael Dell’s private investments – B Lab puts applicant companies through a rigorous vetting process, where it uses a 200-point system to measure companies’ performance in five areas: accountability, which includes governance, transparency and customer engagement; employee impact, like compensation, benefits, job flexibility and worker health and safety; consumer impact, including whether its products promote public benefits or are targeted at under-served populations; and community impact, which measures the extent to which the company uses locally sourced materials and donates to local charities and service projects.
In the world of scoring for companies that focus on the so-called triple bottom line, meaning people, planet and profit, B Lab has one of the most rigorous rating systems. While most other corporate responsibility rankings, like the Corporate Knights Global 100, Ethisphere Institute’s Most Ethical Companies and Corporate Responsibility Magazine’s 100 Best Corporate Citizens, are put together by groups or publications that rank companies from the outside, B Corporations have to apply for certification and submit to judging by a B Lab panel in addition to subjecting themselves to follow-up audits. They also pay an annual fee based on revenues and amend their articles of incorporation to promise they will value doing good as much as making money.
Using its point system, B Lab has come up with a list of 92 out of its 990 certified companies, which score in the top 10% of its point system. Earlier this month it announced that list and dubbed those companies “Best for the World.” Here is a link to the entire list.
B Lab is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that serves a global movement of entrepreneurs using the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. B Lab serves these entrepreneurs through three interrelated initiatives that provide them the legal infrastructure and help them attract the customers, talent, and capital to scale.
Discover, Explore and Learn more at http://www.bcorporation.net/what-are-b-corps/the-non-profit-behind-b-corps
About Forbes
Forbes.com Inc., (www.forbes.com) a leading Internet media company, is among the most trusted resources for the world’s business and investment leaders, providing them the uncompromising commentary, concise analysis, relevant tools and real-time reporting they need to succeed at work, profit from investing and have fun with the rewards of winning. Forbes.com includes real-time original reporting on business, technology, investing and lifestyle; stock and mutual fund quotes; comprehensive company profiles; a wide array of interactive tools, calculators and databases, including People Tracker, the annual Forbes Lists; a Lifestyle section that currently focuses on high-end vehicles, collecting, real estate and travel; and the complete online editions of Forbes’ magazines.
Discover, Explore and Learn more at http://www.forbes.com/fdc/about.html
Be the First to Know – Join Ismailimail
Get breaking news related to the Ismaili Imamat, the world wide Ismaili Muslim community and all their creativity, endeavors and successes.
Inspired? Share the story
Want to inspire? Send your stories to us at Ismailimail@gmail.com
Subscribe and join 22,000 + other individuals – Subscribe now!
Earlier & Related from the Ismailimail Archives
Ismailimail 