Kenya’s telecommunications giant Safaricom Plc has released the half-year financial results to September 2018 registering a growth in net profits by 20.2 percent to 31.50 billion shillings.
As other players in the industry continue to struggle and with some looking for a way out, things seem to be going on the right side for Safaricom, with share prices at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) being a darling for many.
During the half year under review, M-PESA was the main driver of growth for the period. The product, according to Safaricom, accounted for nearly two-thirds of the 7.7 percentage point increase and growing 18.2 percent on a year-to-year basis.
MPESA now accounts for 30.0 percent of service revenue for Safaricom, indicating the resilience in the company’s business model vis a vis a traditional telco. Total M-PESA revenue during the period grew 18.2 percent to 35.52 billion shillings.
Mobile data, which is currently going through a pricing journey, experienced an easing of growth and was up 10.8 percent on a year-to-year basis. Mobile data accounts for 16.5 percent of service revenue. The new law that is already in place increased the price of data by 5 percent from 10 percent to 15 percent
Safaricom also introduced the fixed data product, although still a relatively new line of business, it contributed 3.3 percent of Service Revenue and recorded growth of 21.0 percent for the period.
The revenue for voice service for both incoming and outgoing grew by 1.4 percent to 48.03 billion shillings while the total mobile data revenue during the period was up 10.8 percent to 19.45 billion shillings.
Revenue from messaging declined by 1.2 percent to 8.81 billion shillings while fixed service revenue increased by 21.0 percent to 3.91 billion shillings.
Safaricom also realized an increase in customer numbers by 1.5 percent to 29.94 million. 30-day active M-PESA customers grew by 8.8 percent to 21.01 million.