BY DAVID WANJALA
Safaricom has defied the odds including the recent untimely demise of its long serving CEO and the dwindling economy to record yet another unmatched performance in the first half of 2019 announced earlier today.
The regions leading telco announced a 14.4% rise in net profit for the first half of the year to September 30, 2019.
Announcing the results, Ag CEO Michael Joseph said the company’s net profit for the period was Sh35.7b. He attributed the growth to MPesa and fixed data.
“Customer growth remained strong in the first half of this year and we have more than doubled our net additions versus last year,” he said.
He said that guidance for financial year 2020 remains at Sh93b – 97b in earnings before interest and tax and Sh36b – 39b in capital expenditure.
M-Pesa, the outgoing Ag CEO said, has been on a steady climb with a 12.4% growth in customer numbers and 11.4% growth in usage.
“M-PESA now accounts for 33.8% of service revenue, growing by Sh6.5b, or 18.2% year over year,” he said.
Mobile data customers are said to have grown by 14.8% with a positive outlook for second half expected with a sustained momentum. Data consumption per customer per MB was reported to have increased by 43.6% while savings and lending contributed two thirds of this driven by Fuliza.
In just 9 months, Fuliza’s revenue made up half the revenue in the saving and lending bucket. Safaricom remitted Sh98.13b in duties, taxes and license fees.
