Customers’ increased spending and the expansion of the Ethiopian unit contributed to Safaricom’s net profit for the six months ended in September, which jumped to Sh34.2 billion.
Compared to the same period last year, when profit after tax fell by 10% to Sh33.5 billion, this represents an improvement.
Following the telecom’s prior pricing cuts, customers upped their spending.
Safaricom has reduced data rates by 65 percent, outgoing call rates per minute, and the M-Pesa cost by 44 percent, and 61 percent, since 2020.
According to Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa, “We have delivered a great set of results largely by supporting our customers with enhanced value and reduced prices on our products and services.”
“We recognize that difficult times are experienced by all, and as a company, we’re committed as a business to support our customers cope,” Ndegwa added.
“The reduced prices have seen our customers use more of our services hence the double-digit growth in profitability and revenue.”
Increased revenue came at a time when Safaricom Ethiopia rolled out M-Pesa services in the country.
For instance, the Ethiopian unit registered 1.2 million customers on the platform in less than two months.
“This confirms what we have been saying about Ethiopia in terms of how it will significantly support our growth into the future. We are looking to maintain this momentum in the second half of the year,” he said.
In the month of September, Ethiopia’s data usage was higher than Kenya’s, with 4.3 gigabytes per customer compared to 3.7 for Kenya.
“We see more opportunities with M-PESA and mobile data, though coming off a small base. We are particularly impressed with the usage levels in mobile data. Such levels were only realized in Kenya after close to 10 years of operations,” Ndegwa said.
