Safaricom has announced full year results for the year ended March 31, 2015 showing a 38 per cent rise in profit after tax from Sh23 billion to Sh31.9 billion, with much of the growth coming from non-voice services.

The largest mobile provider also announced the commercial rollout of a high speed internet connection (4G) in Nairobi and Mombasa. In the last financial year ending March 2014, the telecoms operator generated Sh23 billion in after tax profit.

Total revenue for Safaricom increased 13 per cent to Sh163.4 billion, with the mobile giant’s customer base growing eight per cent to 23.3 million.

Non-voice revenue — which mainly includes income from data and the M-Pesa mobile money service — grew 27 per cent to Sh68.8 billion, accounting for 42 per cent of total revenue. Okoa Jahazi emergency top-ups rose 32 per cent.

Voice income for Safaricom, meanwhile, was only up four per cent to Sh87.4 billion.

“MPesa, now contributing 20 per cent of total revenue, continues to be a significant driving factor in our growth,” CEO Bob Collymore said.

“We continue to strive to deliver the best service to our customers and for that we have been rewarded with strong commercial and financial performance.

“We have delivered on our goal to transform lives by providing unmatched services; improving our network quality; and deepening financial inclusion with the customer uptake of Lipa na MPesa,” Safaricom Chief Executive Bob Collymore said during the investor briefing. Rollout of 4G network, a product of the TV digital migration, is expected to be extend to 13 towns and cities by year end.

Internet usage saw revenue from mobile data grow to SH14.8 billion from Sh9.31 billion while messaging services posted a 15 percent revenue increase to Sh15.6 billion.

“Today we are announcing the launch of Safaricom’s home broadband solution, which is a set-top box that brings the 3G and 4G network into the home, and distributes the superfast connectivity via Wi-Fi to any existing Wi-Fi enabled devices,” he said.

“This is a first for Kenya and will enable our customers to experience superfast home broadband and mobile data offerings,” he added.

Mr Collymore stated that voice services revenue contributed 54 percent of the total revenue. M-Pesa contributed 20 percent of the company’s total revenue.

“Since its launch, the Lipa na MPesa service has enabled cashless merchant payments and facilitated trade between businesses and their customers while improving business efficiency,” he said.

Safaricom customers also grew by 8 per cent to 23.3 million from 21.6 million. Safaricom’s share price on Wednesday rose to an all-time high of Sh17.9 apiece on the back of strong investor sentiment of record profits to be announced today.