The fact that Safaricom is East and Central Africa’s largest corporation was undisputed yesterday as the company released its results for the year ended 201. This is after the company announced a net profit of 38.1 billion, the highest for any company in the history of Kenya. This was due to a growth in service revenue by 13.8% to Kshs.177.8 billion, a 7.8% increase in total customer base to 25.2 million, voice service revenue grew by 3.9% to Kshs.90.8 billion, sms revenue grew by 10.6% to Kshs.17.3 billion I guess more people prefer texting to calling, Mpesa revenue grew by 27.2% to Kshs.41.5 billion while fixed service revenue that is revenue from post paid users grew by 22% to Kshs.3.8 billion.
Growth in voice service revenue was driven by a 7.8% growth in customers, a 42.3% increase of airtime top ups via mpesa, a total of 252,000 retailers actively selling top up cards and a 22.9% increase in okoa jahazi. The minutes of talk time used per customer per month grew by 11% to 103.9.
Growth in Mpesa was driven by an increase in the number of 30 day active users to 16.6 million, 17.5% growth in Mpesa agents to 100,744. Mshwari had an increase of 30 day active customers to 3.9 million with Kshs.8.1 billion on deposit and Kshs.10 billion on loan as at 31st March 2016 with the non performing loans standing at 1.93%. As for KCB-Mpesa the 30 day active customers stood at 730,000 with deposits of Kshs.0.19 billion and Kshs.1.47 billion given out as loans with the non performing loans standing at 3.61% as at 31st March 2016. The total amount of money transacted on Mpesa stood at 5.29 trillion which has gone up by 27%.
Mobile data growth was driven by 21.5% growth in monthly active mobile data users to 14.08 million which is 53% of Safaricom’s customer base. 77% in mobile data usage per customer while the average price per MB declined by 33%. A 128% growth in smartphone users to 7.8 million.
SMS revenue growth was driven by 14% growth in monthly active SMS users to 15.23 million, a 24.1% growth in active SMS bundle users to 4.96 million and not so surprisingly the category of income has benefitted from the growth in sports betting and lotteries.
Speaking at the launch Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore had this to say, “Our continued focus on the three strategic pillars; putting customers‟ first, providing relevant products and enhancing operational excellence, has resulted in an 8% growth of our loyal customer base generating strong financial and commercial performance.”
In a bid to understand what their customer wants, the company has realigned its sales and operations teams to be independently managed in six regions. The sales teams and network teams in each region will be reporting to the region’s head. This will help them better understand their customer’s needs and how to serve them better.
The company expects its earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) to be in the range of Kshs. 89-92 billion with capital expenditure being in the range of 32-33 billion which is good for the Kenyan economy.