Safaricom has registered over 740,000 customers in Ethiopia less than two months after launch and 20,000 customers joining the network daily.
Safaricom Ethiopia Service Revenue for the period ended September 30th 2022 was Kshs 9.1M while Total Revenue including handsets sales was Kshs 98.3 million while Safaricom Kenya net income grew by 0.6% YoY supported by the 4.6% growth in revenue.
During the announcement of the telco’s half year results, Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa said that they were pleased with the commercial progress made in Ethiopia since launch of operations early last month and were enthusiatic on the growth opportunity in Ethiopia.
Mr. Ndegwa also noted that Safaricom had invested over USD 598million in EthiopiaoL operations and was encouraged by the early uptake of our services, great customer feedback on the quality of their data experience and the revenue contribution by the Ethiopia unit.
The Government of Ethiopia has also committed to award Safaricom with the mobile money license which will boost commercial efforts, with a greater focus of driving financial inclusion and digital acceleration for the people of Ethiopia.
During this period, Safaricom rallyied a private sector response to the prolonged drought in Kenya through the Pamoja Tuungane campaign and contributed KShs 100 million through Safaricom Foundation to help Kenyans affected by drought in 23 counties. The campaign also received donations in bonga points, cash and in kind from various organisations valued at over Kshs 32 million.
Safaricom will soon be launching new products and services in the second half of the financial year, including the M-PESA Go product to enhance child safety and sound financial knowledge to children below 18 years as well as the anticipated return to charging on banking transactions.
Other key highlights include:
- Service Revenue +4.6% to KShs 144.83Bn
- Voice revenue -3.8% to KShs 39.88Bn
- M-PESA revenue +8.7% to KShs 56.86Bn.
- Mobile data revenue +11.3% to KShs 26.30Bn.
- Total customer base +2.9% to 43.17Mn for Kenya, 180k for Safaricom Ethiopia
- One-month active M-PESA customers +8.6% to 31.17Mn.
- One-month active mobile data customers +4.8% to 25.20Mn
Solid financial performance
- Safaricom Kenya Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT), +0.3% to Kshs 58.40Bn, +0.8% excluding impact of Mobile Termination Rates (MTR) changes
- Safaricom Plc Group EBIT -11.5% to KSHS 51.25Bn and -11.1% excluding impact of MTR changes
Net Income
1. Safaricom Plc Kenya +0.6% to KShs 37.55Bn
2. Safaricom Plc Group excluding minority interest, -10.0% to KShs 33.47Bn
