During the announcement of the H1 FY22 Results by telco Safaricom, some key data was revealed.
The results are for six months ended on September 30, 2021. The company’s service revenue grew by 16.9 percent YoY in H1 F22 following a strong performance for M-PESA after the return of person-to-person fees for transfers under KES 1000. The fees had been lifted following the start of the pandemic.
Mobile Data
Safaricom mobile data is the most used product of its caliber in the country. The corporation has millions of subscribers, and following extensive investment in the space, Safaricom has been able to push LTE coverage to 96 percent.
3G and 2G population coverage now stand at 96% and 97% respectively.
The firm has since promised to hit the 100 percent 4G cover promise in the near future.
The future is bright too because, in 2022, Safaricom will officially launch 5G to many parts of the country. It is in the process of installing 5G sites across the country, including in Western Kenya.
Now, according to the results, distinct data bundle customers jumped 8.1 percent to 17 million.
Data customers that use more than 1 GB of data have also grown 26.7 percent to 6.8 million
Safaricom adds that its effective rate per MB has been reduced as it focuses on affordability. It adds to the company’s past attempts of making its data offering more appealing: data without expiry was launched back in 2019.
And lately, the company announced plans to launch a 1 GB bundle for KES 20, but it only lasts for an hour. The same plan will also see access to 1.5 GB of data for KES 50 with a validity of three hours.
Moreover, data revenue grew 6.3 percent.
4G-capable phones accessing the Safaricom network grew 37.3 percent to 9.7 million.
4G phones that use more than 1 GB of data grew 22.2 percent YoY to 4.7 million, which represents 48 percent of all 4G devices.
Lastly, Safaricom has also announced that it will be replenishing the Lipa Mdogo Mdogo catalog with new phones, including the TECNO Camon 17 and SPARK 7. The plan has so far sold 400K phones, effectively availing phones to groups that cannot afford to outrightly purchase one at a full price.
Lipa Mdogo Mdogo phones are available after paying a KES 1000 deposit; the rest of the fees are cleared for as low as KES 20 per day.
