Safaricom has announced an after-tax profit of Ksh. 71.7 billion in the 2019/2020 financial year with service revenue growing to Ksh. 251.2billion.
The revenue growth for the year was driven by growth in M-PESA revenue, which grew by 12.6{d59e984f9fbc5c09e4ab0305e27bfa5819922b7230cd324f89a660f78358ca33} to KES 84.44bn contributing 33.6{d59e984f9fbc5c09e4ab0305e27bfa5819922b7230cd324f89a660f78358ca33} of the service revenue and mobile data which grew by 12.1{d59e984f9fbc5c09e4ab0305e27bfa5819922b7230cd324f89a660f78358ca33} to KES 40.67billion.
Still in the same period, one month active overall customer base increased by 9.5{d59e984f9fbc5c09e4ab0305e27bfa5819922b7230cd324f89a660f78358ca33} to 28.63mn while One month active M-PESA customers increased 10.0{d59e984f9fbc5c09e4ab0305e27bfa5819922b7230cd324f89a660f78358ca33} to 24.91million.
“New business accounted for more than 50{d59e984f9fbc5c09e4ab0305e27bfa5819922b7230cd324f89a660f78358ca33} of the overall growth, growing at strong 43.4{d59e984f9fbc5c09e4ab0305e27bfa5819922b7230cd324f89a660f78358ca33} Year on Year,” said Safaricom Chief Financial Officer Sateesh Kamath.”Savings and lending, powered by Fuliza, continues to drive the growth, accounting for 5.8ppts, or two thirds of the new business growth, ” he added.
While announcing the results Safaricom Chief Financial Officer Sateesh Kamath noted M-PESA revenue from betting declined by 1.9 billion shillings, a 33{d59e984f9fbc5c09e4ab0305e27bfa5819922b7230cd324f89a660f78358ca33} decline Year on year.Voice service and Messaging revenue also shrunk by 1.4{d59e984f9fbc5c09e4ab0305e27bfa5819922b7230cd324f89a660f78358ca33} to KES 94.45bn and 12.3{d59e984f9fbc5c09e4ab0305e27bfa5819922b7230cd324f89a660f78358ca33} to KES 17.19b respectively.
In the period under review, chargeable transactions per customer per month grew at 21{d59e984f9fbc5c09e4ab0305e27bfa5819922b7230cd324f89a660f78358ca33} YoY while Average MBs per customer grew at an overall 47{d59e984f9fbc5c09e4ab0305e27bfa5819922b7230cd324f89a660f78358ca33} YoY.
“Data penetration continues to increase, with customers using more than 100 mbs per month growing at 23.7{d59e984f9fbc5c09e4ab0305e27bfa5819922b7230cd324f89a660f78358ca33}, and, active 4G devices growing at 84{d59e984f9fbc5c09e4ab0305e27bfa5819922b7230cd324f89a660f78358ca33} YoY,” noted Sateesh.
Safaricom has also proposed to pay its shareholders a dividend of Sh.1.40 per share once approved during the Annual General Meeting which is to be held either at the end of July or early August this year.