The number of registered M-PESA customers in Safaricom Ethiopia increased by 245% to 10.8 million as at December 2024 from 3.1 million December 2023, driven by airtime purchases and cross border money transfers.
- However, the total revenue from MPESA declined by 74% to KSh 9.8 million in the 9 months to December 2024 from KSh 38.4 million in the same period in 2023 while total transaction value declined by 30% to KSh 14.7 billion and volume shot up 1023% to 124.8 million.
- Safaricom launched M-PESA in Ethiopia in August 2023 with Kenya extending its M-PESA Global service to the country to facilitate cross-border money transfers.
- About 20% of airtime top ups were done through M-PESA, contrary to Kenya’s dominance of cash transfers and merchant payments through the platform.
“Since its launch in August 2023, M-PESA has made significant strides in the country’s mobile money sector,” Safaricom noted in the quarterly update of its Ethiopian unit. “We have so far registered 10.8Mn M-PESA customers as of the end of December 2024, cumulative since inception.”
The number of 90-day active customers increased 64% year on year to 7.1 million with the average revenue per user growing 13% to KSh 129.06 in December 2024. Total service revenue was up 79% to KSh 6.3 billion with mobile data the largest contributor by 76.4% to stand at KSh 4.8 billion in December 2024. Messaging revenue doubled to KSh 60.6 million while voice revenue was up 28% year on year to hit KSh 870.1 million.
The number of one-month active mobile data customers surged 141% to 4.4 million, year-on-year with the average data usage per chargeable customer increased significantly from 3.6GB in Q3 FY24 to 6.6GB in Q3 FY25, marking an 82.6% jump.
The number of MPESA agents grew by 17% to 29,200 while merchants increased 177% to 119,500. The telco rolled out 3,101 base stations, covering 48.5% of Ethiopia’s population, and expects to reach 55% by June 2025.
The depreciation of the Ethiopian Birr by 116.1% in 2024 increased Safaricom’s operational costs, prompting tariff increases across various services in October 2024. Following major forex reforms in Ethiopia, the telco extended its break-even target for operations in Ethiopia by a year to FY27.
In October 2024, Ethio Telecom took its first steps towards privatization with the government selling a 10% stake in the state-owned telco. The telco offered 100 million ordinary shares to Ethiopian citizens at a fixed price of 300 Ethiopian birr per share. The offer was extended to 14th February 2025.
