Safaricom's M-Pesa revenues rise to Sh77.22bn

Safaricom’s mobile money service platform M-Pesa revenues have continued to grow after generating Sh77.22 billion in the first six months of the year.

The results signify a 16.6 per cent growth in the unaudited results.

According to the telco, this has been facilitated by year-over-year (YoY) average revenue per user which has also grown by 13.1 per cent.

“Chargeable transactions per one-month active customers increased by 25.6% to 37.37,” Safaricom said.

During this period, total M-Pesa transaction value rose by 10.7 per cent to Sh20.85 trillion.

From the half-year unaudited results, one-month active customers grew by 4.1% to 33.46 million while M-PESA agents rose by 2.4% to 266,071.

The number of pochi tills more than doubled to 869,023 while merchant overdraft customers grew 72.9 per cent to 52,272.

“We have seen great performance in new products like pochi la biashara and Merchant overdraft products as we continue to support our SMEs in our ecosystem,” Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa said.

Safaricom PLC further announced a 21.7 per cent growth in net earnings for the first six months of the year, with the Group service revenue growing by 14 per cent to hit a half-year high of Sh181.4 billion.

The strong performance was driven by double-digit growth in the Kenyan unit, where service revenue grew by 12.9 per cent to Sh177 billion, resulting in EBIT and net income growing by 18 per cent to Sh79.2 billion.

"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 the use of technology, and we will continue growing our core business while expanding into new services through our innovative spirit."

Ndegwa further noted that while the company is operating under a difficult period, he is encouraged by the resilience and commitment displayed by staff who were able to deliver for customers while maintaining shareholder value.