{"id":9660,"date":"2026-11-05T07:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-11-05T07:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/05\/safaricoms-h1-profit-rises-36-to-447-8m-as-ethiopia-losses-fall-43\/"},"modified":"2026-11-05T07:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-11-05T07:46:10","slug":"safaricoms-h1-profit-rises-36-to-447-8m-as-ethiopia-losses-fall-43","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/05\/safaricoms-h1-profit-rises-36-to-447-8m-as-ethiopia-losses-fall-43\/","title":{"rendered":"Safaricom’s H1 profit rises 36% to $447.8m as Ethiopia losses fall 43%"},"content":{"rendered":"

Safaricom Plc has reported a 36% surge in its Profit after Tax for the first half (H1 27) to $447.8 million (Ksh 58.2 billion), after losses in its Ethiopian operation narrowed by 43% compared to the previous period.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to financial results released on Thursday<\/a>, November 5, group service revenue increased by 13.1% to $1.74 billion (Ksh 226.1 billion), largely driven by the Kenyan market. Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 27.5% to Ksh 129.2 billion, while Earnings Before Interest and Taxes (EBIT) surged 39.8% to Ksh 91.1 billion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Safaricom Group CEO Peter Ndegwa said that data revenue grew by 12.2% to Ksh 45.2 billion, while voice revenue followed closely with Ksh 42.2 billion after a 6.2% surge.<\/p>\n

\"Safaricom\"
H1\u201927 financial result announcement<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Also read: Safaricom fires 118 staff and recovers $7.34 million in fraud crackdown<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

As more people take up the internet, the group said active data customers grew 11.6% to 27.9 million, while data usage per user rose 9.4% to 5.3 gigabytes, showing how much an average user is using the internet.<\/p>\n

Voice customers jumped 4.1% to 31.4 million as minutes per subscriber surged 11.9% to 231.8 and the average rate per minute dropped by 9.5%. However, voice remained particularly strong. Despite the 9.5% decline in rates, revenue grew, supported by higher usage and customer growth. Lower pricing is driving greater consumption across both voice and data.<\/p>\n

Aside from voice and data, Safaricom\u2019s revenue was largely driven by M-PESA, its Fintech division.<\/p>\n

In the first half of the 2027 financial year, M-PESA\u2019s revenue jumped 13.6% to Ksh 100.1 billion, translating to a 46.3% share of the group\u2019s total revenue. Also, M-PESA contributed 54.7% of the Ksh 22.0 billion increase in service revenue, followed by connectivity (33.7%) and fixed services & IoT (11.6%).<\/p>\n

\"Vodacom
M-Pesa agent booth<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Safaricom in Kenya and Ethiopia<\/h4>\n

In Kenya, the company maintained its momentum across all major financial indicators. Service revenue surged 11.3% to Ksh 216.0 billion, while EBITDA rose 13.3% to Ksh 128.9 billion. Operating profit (EBIT) increased 13.7% to Ksh 101.8 billion, pushing net profit up 13.8% to reach Ksh 66.3 billion.<\/p>\n

Profitability grew faster than revenue, reflecting operating leverage, while operating free cash flow growth of 19.6% outpaced earnings growth, strengthening cash generation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Safaricom\u2019s Ethiopian expansion recorded significant gains alongside reductions in operating losses. Service revenue in Ethiopia jumped 71.6% to Ksh 10.6 billion, attributed to mobile data, which surged 90.2% to Ksh 7.9 billion to account for a 74% share of total revenue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Voice revenue grew 20.9% to Ksh 1.7 billion, while fixed services and IoT recorded a 109.7% jump to Ksh 0.2 billion. Safaricom Ethiopia also recorded a significant reduction in losses. Its EBITDA loss narrowed by 96.5% to approximately KSh 434.4 million, while its operating loss declined by 53.4% to KSh 11.4 billion.<\/p>\n

Safaricom\u2019s operational metrics in Ethiopia also demonstrated positive scale and user engagement across the board.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The network\u2019s 90-day active customer base expanded 38.4% to reach 15.4 million in Ethiopia, while 30-day active users surged 43.4% to 12.2 million. Mobile data customers grew 37.0% to 12.1 million, voice users increased 31.5% to 12.6 million, and M-PESA\u2019s adoption accelerated by 54.6% to hit 5.2 million subscribers.<\/p>\n

\"Safaricom\"<\/figure>\n

In terms of customer monetisation, the 30-day Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) climbed 35.6% to 188 ETB.<\/p>\n

Safaricom launched in \u2060Ethiopia in 2022 when the government there started to open up the tightly-controlled \u2060economy to foreign competition. It hopes its presence in Africa\u2019s \u2060second most populous country will power future growth<\/p>\n

Also read: Vodacom to keep 15% Safaricom stake pending Court of Appeal\u2019s ruling on $1.9 billion deal<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Source: <\/p>\n

Technext<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Safaricom Plc has reported a 36% surge in its Profit after Tax for the first half (H1 27) to $447.8 million (Ksh 58.2 billion), after losses in its Ethiopian operation… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9661,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}