Safaricom crosses billion-dollar mark as earnings hit Ksh.140B

Safaricom PLC recorded Ksh.139.9 billion in earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) in the period ending March 31, 2024, financials released on Thursday showed.

The 2023/2024 results showed Safaricom PLC Group, which incorporates Safaricom Ethiopia, posted a 3.5 per cent year-on-year growth to close at an EBIT of Ksh.94.9 billion.

The regional telecoms giant said its earnings surpassed market expectations and the group guidance range of Ksh.129 billion and Ksh.132 billion.

Safaricom’s revenue grew 13.4 per cent to Ksh.335.3 billion in the review period, with M-Pesa contributing 42.4 per cent of revenue at Ksh.140 billion while GSM business contributed 52.7 per cent at Ksh.173.9 billion.

Similarly, the net income increased by 13.7 per cent to Ksh.84.74 billion for Safaricom Kenya while the group net income excluding minority interest increased by 1.2 per cent to Ksh.62.99 billion.

Safaricom attributed the performance to customer segmentation, public sector digitisation, investments in new technologies and better use of data and analytics to understand and serve customers better.

“We are extremely pleased with what we have been able to achieve as a group despite the significant start-up costs in our Ethiopia business. We expect that from 2025, Ethiopia will start being a significant growth contributor at group level for both top and bottom line,” Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa said.

“As a result of our razor-sharp focus on our customers, we are now a billion-dollar business in Kenya.”

He noted that in Ethiopia where Safaricom entered in October 2022, it has doubled its active customer base to 4.4 million.

“We have built a world-class network that is currently almost half Kenya’s size and we are on track to meet our licence obligations. We are hence pleased with the commercial momentum in Ethiopia and proud that we have been able to deliver this momentum with a Safaricom Ethiopia team that is 90% Ethiopians,” Ndegwa said.

Meanwhile, Safaricom’s Board Chairman Adil Khawaja said the board will recommend a final dividend of 65 cents per ordinary share, bringing the total dividend payable for the 2024 financial year to Ksh.1.20 per share.