Kenyan telco Safaricom has surpassed the billion-dollar threshold in revenue, becoming the first company in the East Africa region to reach the milestone. This is according to the company’s full-year 2023/2024 results,
Safaricom recorded US$ 1 billion in its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) in the period ending March 2024.
At a group level, incorporating the start-up costs and investments in Safaricom Ethiopia, the group closed at an EBIT of US$724.9m, a 3.5% growth year on year.
The earnings surpassed both the market expectations and the group guidance range of US$98.5m – US$100.8m.
“We are extremely pleased with what we have achieved as a group despite the significant start-up costs in our Ethiopia business. We expect that from 2025, Ethiopia will be a significant growth contributor at group level for both top and bottom line,” Peter Ndegwa, Safaricom PLC CEO, said.
In the period under review, Safaricom PLC Group revenue grew by 13.4% to US$44.1m, with M-PESA contributing 42.4% of revenue at US$18.4m and GSM business contributing 52.7% at US$22.9m.
In Ethiopia, Safaricom has doubled its active customer base to 4.4 million and built a network almost half the size of Kenya’s.
Ndengwa said: “We are pleased with commercial momentum in Ethiopia and proud that we have been able to deliver this momentum with a Safaricom Ethiopia team of 90% Ethiopians.”
The CEO also noted that the company’s vision towards a purpose-led technology company was a key factor in investments that enabled the company to create more efficiencies and better customer engagement.
“We can anticipate and serve our customers more intuitively while engaging our communities to solve societal challenges. As a result of our razor-sharp focus on our customers, we are now a billion-dollar business in Kenya,” Ndengwa noted.
