Safaricom Earnings Hit $1 Billion

Safaricom PLC has announced $1 billion in its earnings before interest and tax in the period ending 31 March 2024, becoming the first company in the region to hit past the billion-dollar mark.

At a group level, incorporating the start-up costs and investments in Safaricom Ethiopia, the group closed at an EBIT of $724 million, a 3.5 per cent growth year on year.

The earnings surpassed market expectations and the group guidance range of $984 million to $1 billion. This performance was driven by customer segmentation, public sector digitisation, investments in new technologies and better use of data and analytics to understand and serve customers better.

Peter Ndegwa, Safaricom PLC CEO said“We are extremely pleased with what we have been able to achieve as a group despite the significant startup costs in our Ethiopia business. We expect that from 2025, Ethiopia will become a significant growth contributor at the Group level for both top and bottom line.”

In the period under review, Safaricom PLC Group revenue grew by 13.4 per cent to $2.5 billion, with M-PESA contributing 42.4 per cent of the revenue of over $1 billion, and GSM business contributing 52.7 per cent at $1.3 billion.

Ndegwa spoke during the announcement of the Full Year 2023/2024 results, which saw net income increase by 13.7 per cent for Safaricom Kenya. While the Group’s net income excluding minority interest increased by 1.2 per cent. He noted that the company’s vision towards a purpose-led technology company was a key factor in investment in new technologies that have enabled the creation of more efficiencies and better customer engagement.

“We can anticipate and serve our customers more intuitively while engaging our communities to solve our societal challenges. As a result of our razor-sharp focus on our customers, we are now a billion-dollar business in Kenya, he noted.

On Ethiopia, Safaricom’s CEO stated, “We have doubled our active customer base to 4.4 million, we have built a world-class network that is currently almost half of Kenya’s size and is on track to meet our licence obligations. We are pleased with commercial momentum in Ethiopia and proud that we have been able to deliver this momentum with a Safaricom Ethiopia team that is 90 per cent Ethiopians.”

Adil Khawaja, Safaricom Board Chairman added that “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 Ksh1 20 cents per share, equivalent to $367 million.”

Safaricom has also announced its support towards the flood victims through the M-PESA Foundation, channelling the funds towards supporting initial relief efforts, including vital supplies, food, temporary shelter, medicines, and emergency medical kits in affected areas.