Safaricom Ltd Earnings Before Tax Rise by 19 percent to 38.1 Billion

Safaricom reported on Wednesday reported its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in the full year to March rose 19 percent to 38.1 billion shillings.

According to Bob Collymore, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, the sting financial and commercial performance has been attributed to its three pillars.

“Our continued focus on the three strategic pillars: putting customers first, providing relevant products and enhancing operational excellence has resulted in an 8 percent growth of our loyal customer base.”

For its FY17 the company expects its EBITDA to be in the range of KSH 89billion and a capital expenditure to be in the range of KSH 32 billion to 33 billion.

The company aims to leverage more on its data growth going forward besides expanding its network.

“Data remains our fastest growing revenue stream and we are focused on growing it further through accelerating smartphone penetration, growing 3G and 4G users, offering relevant content, driving adoption of data bundles and owning the home through our affordable 4G home broadband and fiber to the home solutions,” said Collymore.

According to the results,  Safaricom’s mobile data revenue grew at 42 per cent driven by a combination of. A 21.5percent increase in 30 day active mobile data customers to 14.1m.

Collymore said M-PESA continues to be their key platform to drive financial inclusion. “We will drive the growth of savings and loans, grow cashless payments for business through MPESA an launch new innovative products.”

Read: Vodafone M-Pesa Reaches 25 Million Customers Milestone

The MPESA revenue grew by 27.2 per cent to KSH 41.5 billion driven by a 19.8percent growth in 30 day active MPESA customers to 16.6m and a 17.5 percent growth through its agents.