Safaricom’s operating profits surpassed Sh139.9 billion in the financial results announced by the telecommunications service provider for the year ended March 31, 2024.

In the period reviewed, Safaricom PLC increased its net profit by 1.2 per cent to Sh62.99 billion, from the Sh62.27 billion posted in the previous financial year, which marked a 22.2 per cent decline in PAT.

The leading telecommunications company's revenue surged 13.4 per cent to Sh335.3 billion, with M-Pesa contributing 42.4 percent at Sh140 billion and GSM 52.7 per cent at Sh173.9 billion.

Safaricom Kenya’s net income rose 13.7 per cent to Sh84.74 billion for the fiscal year while the Group’s net income, excluding minority interest, spiked 1.2 per cent to Sh62.99 billion.

Factoring Safaricom Ethiopia’s startup costs and investments, Safaricom group closed the year with earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) increased of 3.5 per cent at Sh94.9 billion.

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In that regard, Safaricom Board will propose a final dividend of 65 cents per ordinary share, bringing the FY24 total dividend payable to Sh1.20 per share, equivalent to Sh48.08 billion.

Safaricom PLC CEO Peter Ndegwa credited the performance to customer segmentation, public sector digitisation, investment in new technologies and better data and analytics use.

“We are extremely pleased with what we have been able to achieve as a group despite the significant startup costs in our Ethiopia business,” stated Ndegwa.

He added: “We expect that from 2025, Ethiopia will start being a significant growth contributor at group level for both top and bottom line.”

During the period, M-Pesa revenue grew by 19.4 per cent to Sh139.9 billion, with the chargeable transactions per one-month active customers rose 33.9 per cent to 31.5 million

Similarly, the total transaction value on the mobile money service platform increased by 9.6 per cent to Sh40.24 trillion, while volumes realized a 33.9 per cent growth to Sh28.33 billion.

One-month active M-Pesa customers grew 0.9 per cent to 32.41 million, Lipa Na M-Pesa active merchants grew 4.3 per cent to 633,010, as Pochi La Biashara tills stood at 632,680.

Ndegwa expressed satisfaction with the commercial momentum Safaricom Ethiopia has made announcing that the Ethiopian business is on track to meet its license obligations.

“We have doubled our active customer base to 4.4 million, we have built a world class network that is currently almost half the Kenya’s size and are on track to meet our licence obligations,” said Ndegwa.

Key Highlights – Safaricom Group 

• Service Revenue - 5.2 per cent to Sh295.7 billion.

• Voice revenue - 2.6 per cent to Sh81.1 billion.

• M-Pesa revenue 8.8 per cent to Sh117.2 billion.

• Mobile data revenue +11.4 per cent to Sh54.0 billion.

• Total customer base 8.1 per cent to 45.9 million.

• One-month active M-PESA customers 5.2 per cent to 32.1 million.

• One-month active mobile data customers 7.0 per cent to 26.1 million.

Net Income

1. Safaricom Group, excluding Minority Interest, - 10.6 per cent to Sh62.3 billion

2. Safaricom PLC Kenya +3.0 per cent to Sh74.5 billion.

3. Safaricom PLC Operating Free Cash Flow +4.3 per cent to Sh115.7 billion