Safaricom Group has delivered its strongest half-year performance in history, reporting KSh 42.78 billion in net income attributable (up 52.1% year-on-year) and surpassing KSh 200 billion in group revenue for HY26.
- •In an interview with The Kenyan Wall Street, Safaricom CFO Dilip Pal breaks down the principles, decisions, and execution behind these standout results across Kenya and Ethiopia.
- •Pal attributes Safaricom’s enduring strength to a purpose laid down by the founding team — “transforming lives”. This purpose, he says, is not a slogan but a system that informs product development, decision-making, and culture.
- •It also drives innovation. Safaricom encourages employees to experiment, a practice that has historically enabled the company to innovate ahead of peers locally and across the continent.
M-PESA is a prime example. Initially launched as a loyalty product, it has evolved into the company’s central revenue driver, now contributing 44.5% of group revenue. In HY26, M-PESA revenue grew 14% to KSh 88.1 billion, powered by strong growth in merchant and business payments. Active Lipa Na M-PESA merchants increased 32%, while Pochi la Biashara tills surged 73%.
Safaricom is now rolling out a major refresh to its Fintech 2.0 platform, designed to accelerate innovation and unlock a new generation of financial services.
Mobile Data Overtakes Voice
For the first time in Safaricom’s history, mobile data revenue (KSh 44.47 billion) overtook voice revenue (KSh 41.09 billion) — a milestone that reflects the company’s successful digital pivot.
Kenya remains the core earnings engine, with service revenue rising 9.3%. Mobile data revenue in Kenya grew 13.4%, driven by higher usage, with customers consuming an average of 4.85GB per month. While voice is declining globally, Pal noted that Safaricom Kenya has managed to “keep its voice business intact” by listening to customers and evolving offerings around their needs.
This shift contributed to a record group EBITDA of KSh 101.3 billion, up 34.9%.
Ethiopia’s Breakneck Scaling
Safaricom Ethiopia has quickly become a major growth driver, contributing 11% to overall group revenue growth. Pal described the pace of expansion as “quite insane” compared to the Kenya rollout.
A key factor was Ethiopia’s technological leapfrog. The market began with a full 4G digital stack, with all 3,300 sites 4G-enabled from the onset. This allowed customers to instantly access mobile data services, catalyzing rapid adoption.
As data usage scaled, a network effect kicked in — Ethiopia’s voice business grew fivefold as more customers connected to each other. Mobile data now accounts for 66.7% of Ethiopia’s service revenue.
Crucially, Ethiopia’s operating losses have also begun narrowing, contributing to the group’s overall profit rebound.
Strategic Investment
Safaricom’s performance is also the result of disciplined yet bold investment decisions.
In Kenya, the company frontloaded CAPEX, increasing it by about 11–12% year-on-year. This enabled the rollout of 400 new sites in just six months — a pace typically achieved over a full year. Pal said this frontloading ensures maximum commercial impact as demand for digital services rises.
Safaricom has increased its investment in Kenya every year for the last five years, demonstrating strong confidence in the market.
At group level, overall investing outflow dropped 25.6%, driven largely by a 66% reduction in Ethiopia CAPEX as the market moves past its peak investment phase.
(Watch the full interview with Safaricom CFO Dilip Pal here.)
