Safaricom half year profit rises to Sh26.2bn

Listed telecom operator Safaricom has raced to a Sh26.2 billion half year net profit for the period ended September 30.

The operator’s performance was driven by continued support from its mobile money platform M-Pesa as well as income from data services.

In the period under review, Safaricom’s revenue grew 12 percent to Sh114 billion.

M-Pesa continued to anchor revenue growth accounting for Sh30.5 billion of total revenue while data revenue rose from Sh13.4 billion to Sh17.5 billion.

Income from voice continues to stagnate and contributed Sh47.4 billion during the period under review.

Speaking while releasing the results on Friday, Safaricom chief financial officer Sateesh Kamath underscored the importance of M-Pesa and data terming them as ‘the engines of growth’ going forward.

Mr Kamath is standing in for chief executive officer Bob Collymore who has taken sick leave to seek specialized treatment for an undisclosed ailment.

Safaricom Chairman Nicholas Ng’ang’a assured investors there was no power vacuum with the CEO having empowered senior managers to run the company.

“The question of us deciding on how his functions will be done did not bring up the question of an acting CEO. Let’s remember that it’s sensitive for a person that is on sick leave to be talking about someone acting in his place and secondly as a board we did not see the point of appointing an acting CEO,” Mr Ng’ang’a said.

Safaricom head of strategy Joseph Ogutu is handling the day to day operations of the company while Mr Kamath acts as the link between management and the board.

More to follow…..