Safaricom’s half-year net profit dropped by six per cent to Sh33.07 billion this year.

This is after revenue collected from M-Pesa declined most based on the free transactions initiated to support clients during the period of Covid-19 pandemic. 

Safaricom’s results covering April to September, also showed messaging and voice revenues decreased due to disruptive measures implemented to tame the virus.

M-Pesa income dipped by Sh6.08 billion and messaging and voice income dipped by Sh0.53 billion and Sh2.79 billion respectively, further eating into the firm’s profits.

Speaking Monday, Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa was optimistic about the performance given Covid-19’s business disruption, with tough times still ahead.

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He said, “It has been a good half year and we are seeing improvement in the second half. However, we know Covid-19 disruption is not over given the resurgence in infections.”

Income from M-Pesa tanked by 14.5 per cent to Sh35.89 billion in spite of the value of transactions increasing by 32.9 per cent to Sh9.47 trillion.

The drop in M-Pesa revenues was due to the move to remove transactions fees on Sh1,000 and below to drastically lessen cash handling during the pandemic.

But working from home was a blessing to Safaricom as it saw mobile data revenues shoot up by 14.1 per cent to Sh22.23 billion and home fibre revenues jump by 47.2 per cent to Sh1.64 billion.