Giant telco Safaricom on Thursday, November 9 announced a decrease in its voice revenue in its half year financial report, compared to the half year 2023, from Ksh255.9 billion to Ksh250.1 billion.
According to Safaricom, this was a 44.3% drop in outgoing voice per minute in comparison to results announced for the half year 2023. It signifies a reduction in the number of people making calls via the network.
The half year results represented the performance of the listed company in the six months through September from 2022.
Furthermore, Peter Ndegwa, the company CEO, noted the drop was due to the shaky economic landscape.
“During this period, there was accelerated pressure on the consumer wallet. This was largely driven by challenging global and local macro-economic factors affecting inflation and exerting pressure on consumer spend,” Peter Ndegwa explained.
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Safaricom financials
Additionally, the report revealed a decrease in messaging revenue from Ksh46.3 billion to Ksh45.9 billion for the half year 2024.
Notably, this also signified a drop in the number of Safaricom’s subscribers who were sending messages through the network.
However, in the report, Ndegwa noted that there was an increase in minutes of usage per subscriber from 175.6 to 184.3 in the half year results.
In the financial report, Dilip Pal highlighted the growing popularity of Fuliza among Kenyans.
“The value of Fuliza reached Ksh419 billion during the half year period,” stated Dilip Pal, the company Chief Finance Officer, CFO.
Safaricom’s increase in mobile data usage, profits
Additionally, the telecoms company announced that 19% of revenue was from data.
“Mobile data is emerging as a key growth driver, making up nearly 19% of Safaricom’s revenue,” Dilip Pal stated in his speech.
On this, the half year results reported an increase in mobile data usage by 12.5%.
Safaricom stated the reason for this was increased usage and adoption of smartphones.
Notably, 67% of the 21.4 million smartphone users are on 4G while 5G users are 510K.
Additionally, the communications company announced an increase in net income of 10.9% to Ksh41.6 billion.
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Notably, the company also cited a net income of Ksh34.2 billion. This was a jump of 2.1 percent from the results posted in half year 2023.
Furthermore, it was noted that the reduction in excise duty on telephone and internet data services to 15 percent from the previous 20 percent due to the Finance Act 2023, boosted Safaricom’s profits.
However, Safaricom’s foreign denominated debt currently stands at Kshs8.2 billion.
Additionally, the finance costs of the company rose by 48.5%.
