Safaricom Ethiopia generated KES 98.3 million in the first month of operation, coming just one month after it officially launched its telecommunication services in the horn of Africa country.
Safaricom Ethiopia Service Revenue for the period ended September 30th 2022, was KES 9.1 million, while total revenue, including handsets sales, was KES 98.3 million.
Last month, Safaricom’s Ethiopia unit was launched by Safaricom Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Peter Ndegwa with his Ethiopian counterpart Anwar Soussa as well as President William Ruto and Ethiopia Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, opening a huge market opportunity for the telco.
“We are pleased with the commercial progress made in Ethiopia since launch of operations early last month. Most importantly, we are enthusiatic on the growth opportunity in Ethiopia, with over 740,000 customers so far and 20,000 new customers joining the network daily. We are also encouraged by data and voice usage levels with 711 MBs average usage per active data customers and 30 Minutes of Use per active voice customers for the month of October,” Peter Ndegwa, Safaricom PLC CEO.
Mr Ndegwa noted that Safaricom had invested over USD 598million in Ethiopia operations and was encouraged by the early uptake of our services, great customer feedback on the quality of their data experience and the revenue contribution by the Ethiopia unit.
The Government of Ethiopia has also committed to award Safaricom with a mobile money license which will boost commercial efforts with a greater focus on driving financial inclusion and digital acceleration for the people of Ethiopia.
The telecom further noted that revenue from voice service declined by 3.8% to KES 39.88 Billion while mobile Data revenue grew by 11.3% to KES 26.30 Billion, while M-PESA revenue grew by 8.7% to KES 56.86 Billion.
“Given the impact of the Mobile Termination Rates from KES 0.99 to KES 0.58, a slowdown in business operations due to the elections period, increase in excise duty on sim cards and mobile phones and a failed rain season leading to more economic hardship for the country, Safaricom has done very well to deliver solid revenue growth and a net income that is within the expected range,” Peter Ndegwa.