By Eddah Waithaka
On 9th May Kenya’s telecoms giant Safaricom PLC announced robust financial results with an impressive earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of KShs 139.9 billion for the period ending 31st March 2024.
This figure underscores the company’s financial strength and market resilience. In particular, the Group’s expansive outlook, taking into account start-up costs and investments in Safaricom Ethiopia, culminated in a consolidated EBIT of KShs 94.9 billion, representing a growth of 3.5% year-on-year.
Amidst a dynamic industry landscape, Safaricom’s strategic moves and prudent investments appear to be positioning the company for sustained success and market leadership.
This performance was driven by customer segmentation, public sector digitalisation, investment in new technologies and better use of data and analytics to understand and serve customers better.
Peter Ndegwa, CEO of Safaricom PLC, said: “We are very pleased with what we have achieved as a group despite the significant start-up costs of our Ethiopian business. We expect Ethiopia to be a significant contributor to the Group’s top and bottom line growth from 2025 onwards”.
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During the period under review, Safaricom PLC Group revenue grew by 13.4% to Ksh335.3 billion, with M-PESA contributing 42.4% of revenue at Ksh140 billion and the GSM business contributing 52.7% at Ksh173.9 billion.
Mr Ndegwa was speaking during the announcement of Safaricom Kenya’s full year 2023/2024 results, which saw net profit increase by 13.7% to KShs 84.74 billion. While the Group’s net profit excluding minority interests increased by 1.2% to KShs 62.99.
Mr Ndegwa noted that the company’s vision of being a purpose-driven technology company has been a key factor in investing in new technologies that have enabled it to create greater efficiencies and better customer engagement.
“We are able to anticipate and serve our customers more intuitively, while engaging our communities to solve their societal challenges. As a result of our razor-sharp focus on our customers, we are now a billion-dollar business in Kenya.” noted Mr. Ndegwa.
Commenting on Ethiopia, the Safaricom CEO said: “We have doubled our active customer base to 4.4 million, built a world-class network that is currently almost half the size of Kenya’s and are on track to meet our licence obligations. We are therefore 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% Ethiopian”.
Adil Khawaja, Safaricom Board Chairman, “As a result of this growth, the board will recommend a final dividend of 65 cents per ordinary share bringing the total dividend payable for FY24 to one shilling and twenty cents per share, equivalent to KES.48.08 billion.”
Safaricom has also announced its support for the flood victims through the M-PESA Foundation. The KShs 30 million will be used to support the initial relief efforts, which include essential relief items, food, temporary shelter, medicines and emergency medical kits in the affected areas.
Mr Khawanja noted that the company would continue to pursue its purpose of transforming lives and would become more involved in the communities it serves.
