Safaricom has reported a 14.1 percent growth in net income to Sh47.5 billion for the six months ending September 30, 2024, the half-year financial results released on Thursday shows.

The strong performance was driven by double-digit growth in the Kenyan unit, where service revenue grew by 12.9 percent to Sh177.5 billion.

The firm’s total service revenue grew 13.1 percent to Sh179.9 billion, while earnings before Interest and Taxes (EBIT) grew by 1.8 percent to Sh42.2 billion

Safaricom’s Chief Finance Officer Dilip Pal noted that M-Pesa contributed 42.9 percent of the firm’s total service revenue at Sh77.2 billion while mobile connectivity business, comprising of voice, data and SMS, contributed 52.2 percent of revenue at Sh93.9 billion.

In Kenya, M-Pesa revenue recorded a strong growth of 16.6 percent to Sh77.22 billion driven by a 13.1 percent growth in Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) to Sh389.27.

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Chargeable transactions per one-month active customers increased by 25.6 percent to 37.37. One-month active customers grew by 4.1 per cent to 33.46 million while M-Pesa agents rose by 2.4 per cent to 266,007.

According to the telco, during the period under review, money transfer products like Pochi la Biashara and merchant overdraft recorded a great performance as Kenyans shift to cashless payments.

The number of Pochi Tills more than doubled to 869,020 while merchant overdraft (Fuliza) customers grew 72.9 percent to 52,270.

Total M-Pesa transaction value rose 10.7 percent to Sh20.85 trillion while volumes grew 30.6 percent to 17.09 billion.

Meanwhile, voice service recorded revenue growth of 4.8 percent, generating Sh40.55 billion driven by increased usage with minutes of use per subscriber rising by 7.6 per cent YoY to Sh198.31 billion, while active customers grew 10.6 per cent to 28.46 million.

Messaging revenue grew 8 percent YoY to Sh6.20bn, benefiting from campaigns such as Chat Ibambe which has boosted usage and performance.

“This performance, which comes at a time when we are marking 24 years of connecting and transforming Kenyans’ lives, reflects the relentless execution of our strategy,” Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa said.

“We are proud of the value that we have given our customers through use of technology, and we will continue growing our core business while expanding into new services through our innovative spirit,” he added.

The telco’s customers grew by 7.8 per cent year-on-year to 52.01 million while one-month active customers grew by 10.8 per cent to 39.75 million.