Safaricom's half-year net profit up 14.4pc to Sh35.7bn

A Safaricom shop in Nairobi. The telco made Sh35.65 billion in net profits for the six months through September 2019. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

In Summary

• This has set the telco on a course for the eighth straight year of increasing bottom-line.
• During the half year period, M-Pesa revenue grew by 18.2 percent to Sh41.97 billion as mobile data revenue increased by 4 percent to Sh19.78 billion.
• Voice service revenue (drawn from incoming and outgoing calls) which makes up the bulk of the telco’s revenues declined 1.4 percent to Sh46.87 billion while messaging revenue declined by 11 percent to Sh8.6 billion.

By BRIAN NGUGI
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Safaricom net profit for the six months through September this year jumped 14.4 percent to Sh35.65 billion on strong M-Pesa and mobile data revenue growth that offset a decline in voice and messaging (SMS) revenues.

This has set the telco on a course for the eighth straight year of increasing bottom-line.

During the half year period, M-Pesa revenue grew by 18.2 percent to Sh41.97 billion as mobile data revenue increased by four percent to Sh19.78 billion.

DECLINE

Voice service revenue (drawn from incoming and outgoing calls) which makes up the bulk of the telco’s revenues declined 1.4 percent to Sh46.87 billion while messaging revenue declined by 11 per cent to Sh8.6 billion.

"Revenue growth for the half year to September 2019 was 5.3 percent driven by robust performance across M-Pesa and fixed data and strong customer growth offsetting decline in the traditional revenue streams and soft performance on mobile data," said Safaricom outgoing acting chief executive Michael Joseph while announcing the results at the firm’s headquarters in Nairobi on Friday.

During the period, Safaricom’s service revenue was up 5.3 percent per cent to Sh124.32 billion.