Safaricom Ethiopia has marked a fresh milestone with over ten million customers. In the twelve months to December 2024, Safaricom Ethiopia’s M-Pesa customers increased from 3.1 million to 10.8 million.
The telecommunications firm says that this growth in its customer base was largely driven cross-border money transfer services, data and airtime purchases.
“We have so far registered 10.8 million M-Pesa customers as of end of December 2024, cumulative since inception. We are continuously assessing suitable use cases to drive higher usage,” said Safaricom. M-Pesa services were launched in Ethiopia in August 2023, about 10 months after the company launched services in the country.
“Currently, we have 20 per cent of airtime top up being done through M-Pesa. In October 2024, Safaricom Kenya extended its M-Pesa Global service to Ethiopia, enabling seamless cross-border money transfers from Kenya to Ethiopia.”
CBK to slap banks keeping cost of loans high with daily fines
The firm revealed that whereas money transactions through M-Pesa are the leading source of business for Safaricom in Kenya, the situation is different in Ethiopia, with airtime and data at the top.
Safaricom further says that it has increased the number of its M-Pesa merchants in Ethiopia from 43,100 in 2023 to 119,500 in 2024. The number of agents increased marginally from 29,200 to 20,400. The firm further stated that it has made its M-Pesa services interoperable with various banks in the country in a bid to attract and retain more customers out of the convenience of money transfer.
Overall, Safaricom announced that its Ethiopian subsidiary recorded Sh. 6.74 billion in revenue. This was an increase of 40 per cent from the Sh. 4.82 billion revenue that was recorded in the nine months to December 2023.
The number of 90-day active customers on its books increased by 64 per cent to 7.1 million. The average revenue per user increased by 13 per cent to Sh. 129.06 as at December 2024 from Sh. 113.89 as at December 2023.
