Safaricom, Kenya’s largest telco, has released its group financial results for the 2023/2024 fiscal year. For the financial year ending 31st March, Safaricom Kenya made Ksh139.9 billion (~$1.06B) before interest and tax, representing a 20% year-on-year growth. This makes the telco the first company in East Africa to hit the $1 billion in earnings mark.
In total, the Safaricom group made Ksh94.9 billion before interest and taxes representing a 3.5% year-on-year growth. With Safaricom Ethiopia being a relatively new business, its startup and investment costs were considered leading to the figure above, Safaricom’s CEO, Peter Ndegwa, explained during the announcement.
Peter Ndegwa has expressed optimism about Ethiopia’s success. “We expect that from the financial year 2025, [Safaricom] Ethiopia will start being a significant growth contributor for the top line and an accelerator on the bottom line.” Peter Ndegwa remarked during the announcement. Safaricom Ethiopia’s current active customer base has doubled to 4.4 million with Peter Ndegwa adding that they have built the network to almost half the size of Kenya’s.
The company’s Group Service revenue saw a 13.4% year-on-year growth from Ksh281.1 billion to Ksh335.4 billion. Unsurprisingly, Safaricom’s mobile money platform, M-PESA, was the largest contributor to Safaricom’s overall service revenue. M-PESA’s total earnings for the 2023-2024 fiscal year was Ksh139.9 billion, making a 19.4 percent increase from the previous year. This represents 42.4 percent of the group’s total service revenue.
The group’s net income rose by 1.2% to Ksh 63.0 billion from the previous financial year. The company’s net income in Kenya increased by 13.7% to KES 84.74 billion, while the group’s net income increased by 1.2% to KES 62.99 billion (excluding minority interests).
The board is expected to announce a final dividend of 65 cents per ordinary share. This translates to a total dividend payable to Ksh48.08 billion.
