Safaricom races to record Sh34.5b half year pre-tax profit

Listed telecom operator Safaricom has announced a pretax profit of Sh34.5 billion for the six month period ended September.

During the period, Safaricom become the first Kenyan company to cross over a hundred billion shillings in revenue, with a turnover of Sh102 billion.

“Safaricom is the only Kenyan Company and one of the 400 companies in Africa making over $1 billion revenues in a year,” Safaricom Chief Executive Officer Bob Collymore said during the release of the results.

This was driven mainly by data and M-Pesa revenue which showed strong growth during the period.

Revenue from its mobile money service rose 33.7 percent to Sh25.9 billion from Sh19.35 billion a year earlier.

To boost the usability of the mobile money transfer service, Safaricom has introduced M-Pesa Kadogo, which has scrapped the fees for transactions below Sh100 as well as on the Lipa na M-Pesa service.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) for the first half of the year was up 30.8 percent at Sh50.8 billion.