Service revenue grew by 12.0% to Kshs 109.73bn driven predominantly by growth in active users and increased usage of non–voice services mainly M-PESA and mobile data. Non-voice service revenue accounted for 56.8% of service revenue, recording a growth of 19.3% to Kshs 62.38bn.
Overall voice service revenue now stands at 43.2% of service revenue grew by 3.6% to Kshs 47.35bn. As at 30th Sept, the telco’s total customer base grew by 10.8% to 29.5m representing subscriber share of 72.6%.
M-PESA revenue recorded a growth of 16.2% to Kshs 30.05bn from Ksh 25.9Bn in the same period last year. This was driven by 9.5% increase in 30 day active M-PESA customers to 19.3m. Safaricom also noted they now have over 70k active merchants on its Lipa na M-pesa channel.
Mobile data revenue, which accounts for 16.0% of the telco’s service revenue, grew at 31.0% to Kshs 17.55bn. This was driven by 13.5% growth in 30 day active mobile data customers to 16.9m, increased bundle users and increased smartphone penetration during the period. Its Fixed data revenue increased by 34.7% to Kshs 3.23bn attributed to 24.9% growth in fixed service customers.
Profit before tax increased by 9.6% to Ksh 37.8bn compared to Ksh 34.5bn in the same period last year while increased by 8.3% to Ksh 0.65 from Ksh 0.60.
The telecom company maintained its full year guidance for earnings before interest and tax to lie between KES 71 and 75 billion.
Safaricom Chair Nicholas Nganga said the company had put in place robust systems & operations will continue normally despite the absence of its CEO Bob Collymore who is on sick leave outside the country for unspecified number of months.
