Safaricom has registered a Ksh42.6 billion net profit for the full-year period ended 31st March 2024.
This is an 18.71 per cent fall compared to the Ksh52.4 billion the telco giant posted in a similar period the previous year.
Safaricom has attributed the drop in profits to investments in its subsidiary in Ethiopia which was launched in 2022.
“We are extremely pleased with what we have been able to achieve as a group despite the significant startup costs in our Ethiopia business. We expect that from 2025, Ethiopia will start being a significant growth contributor at the group level for both top and bottom line,” said Safaricom PLC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Peter Ndegwa.
On its Ethiopian subsidiary, Ndegwa commented: “We have doubled our active customer base to 4.4M, we have built a world-class network that is currently almost half Kenya’s size and are on track to meet our licence obligations. We are hence pleased with commercial momentum in Ethiopia and proud that we have been able to deliver this momentum with a Safaricom Ethiopia team that is 90 per cent Ethiopians.”
In the period under review, Safaricom PLC Group revenue grew 13.4 per cent to Ksh335.3 billion buoyed by M-PESA, mobile data and fixed data with M-PESA contributing 42.4 per cent of revenue at Ksh140 billion and GSM business contributing 52.7 per cent at Ksh173.9 billion.
Mobile Data Mobile data revenue recorded double-digit growth of 18 per cent to Ksh63.24 billion while ARPU grew marginally by 1.5 per cent to Ksh242.71.
Customers grew 6.8 per cent to 49.02 million while one-month active customers grew 9.1 per cent to 37.7 million during the review period.
Data usage per chargeable subscriber increased 6.4 to 3.79GB while distinct bundle users grew 13.8 per cent to 19.69 million.
Safaricom’s total assets for the trading period jumped 25.9 per cent to Ksh641.1 billion from Ksh509.2 billion during a similar period a year earlier.
Safaricom has recommended a final dividend in respect of the year ended 31 March 2024 of Ksh0.65 (2023; Ksh 0.62) per ordinary share amounting to a total of Ksh26.04 billion (2023: Ksh24.84 billion) to be approved at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) to be held on 25 July 2024.