Safaricom released its half-year results for the period ending September 2016 . One thing worthy of note is the fact that for the first time, the Kenya telecoms giant earned more revenue from its non-voice business.
For half year FY17, it earned a service revenue of Kshs 98 billion which is 15.4% better than the same period in FY16 (Kshs 84.9). EBITDA also grew by 30.8% from Kshs 38.8 to Kshs 50.8 during the same period.
The company stated that service revenue was principally driven by M-Pesa and mobile data. Out of the Kshs 13.1 billion experienced, M-Pesa and mobile data grew by Kshs 6.5 bn and Kshs 4.2 bn respectively. Voice grew by Kshs 0.5 bn, messaging grew by Kshs 0.6 while other income grew by Kshs 1.2 bn.
M-PESA revenue which recorded a growth of 33.7% to Kshs 25.9bn, was driven by 12.2% increase in 30 day active M-PESA customers to 17.6m and a 38.4% growth in monthly usage per customer to 9.3 transactions per month.
The growth in mobile data was driven by a 13.7% growth in 30 day active mobile data customers to 14.9m, increased bundle users and smartphone penetration. The company introduced ‘My Data Manager’ functionality which gives customers control to in-bundle browsing. This has seen bundle users grow by 38.5% to 7.4m. By 30 September 2016, Safaricom had 10.5m customers on 3G and 4G enabled devices. Its Fixed data revenue increased by 29.1% to Kshs 2.4bn on the back of 21.6% growth in fixed service customers
Key highlights for the six month period ended 30 September 2016
- Customer numbers have increased by 6.0% to 26.61m as at September 2016 from 25.10m as at September 2015
- Mobile data customers who were active in the last 30 days increased by 13.7% to 14.93m as at September 2016 from 13.13m as at September 2015
- M-PESA customers who were active in the last 30 days grew by 12.2% to 17.6m as at September 2016 compared to 15.71m as at September 2015
- Service revenue increased by 15.4% to Kshs 98.01bn compared to Kshs 84.91bn in a similar six month period ended September 2015
- Voice revenue increased by 1.1% to Kshs 45.70bn compared to Kshs 45.19bn in a similar six month period ended September 2015
- SMS revenue grew by 8.1% to Kshs 8.60bn compared to Kshs 7.98bn in a similar six month period ended September 2015
- Mobile Data revenue increased by 46.3% to Kshs 13.40bn compared to Kshs 9.16bn in a similar six month period ended September 2015
- Fixed service revenue increased by 29.1% to Kshs 2.40bn compared to Kshs 1.86bn in a similar period ended September 2015
- Strong growth in M-PESA revenue of 33.7% to Kshs 25.90bn compared to Kshs 19.35bn in a similar six month period ended September 2015
- Non-voice service revenues increased to 53.4% of service revenues from 46.8% in a similar six month period ended September 2015
- EBITDA increased by 30.8% to Kshs 50.81bn compared to Kshs 38.84bn in a similar six month period ended September 2015
- Net income increased by 32.4% to Kshs 23.93bn compared to Kshs 18.08bn in a similar six month period ended September 2015
According to Bob Collymore, the CEO the strategic priorities include the following:
- Mobile data is our fastest growing revenue stream, and we will focus on increasing the numbers of 3G and 4G smartphones on our network through launching more 4G (LTE) sites and offering affordable smart devices. We will continue with our fibre rollout to homes that will enable us to offer high speed internet and data.
- Delivering our financial inclusion agenda remains at the core of our strategy to transform lives. To further deepen the financial inclusion and in response to our customers’ feedback, we have reviewed charges for person-to-person and Lipa Na M-PESA transactions under Kshs100. Under the “M-PESA Kadogo” it will be free to send values of KShs100 and below.
A presentation of the financials is available here.
