(Bloomberg) — Safaricom Plc full-year net income gained as East Africa’s largest company was cleared to resume mobile-money service charges and grew its customer base.
Profit at the Nairobi-based wireless carrier grew 1.4% to 69.6 billion shillings ($597 million) in the year through March, the company said on Thursday. Revenue rose 13% to 298 billion shillings, meeting estimates.
The sales boost was driven by a 30% rise of Safaricom’s money transfer and payments platform, M-Pesa, the bedrock of the company’s growth across the region. Safaricom’s subscribers grew to 42 million, while data revenue surged as more people become connected and live a digital life.
“M-Pesa is now accessible across the country as a universal payments network,” Chief Executive Officer Peter Ndegwa told investors. “We have made significant progress on execution in Kenya, we are also making headway in terms of regional expansion with the operationalization of M-Pesa Africa and Ethiopia.”
The company’s capital expenditure jumped 42.4% to 49.7 billion shillings as it prepares to start operating in Ethiopia after securing a license alongside partners Vodafone Group Plc and Vodacom Group Ltd. a year ago.
“We’ve made good progress” in Ethiopia, Ndegwa said. Safaricom has recruited over 300 staff and plans on reaching 1,000 in the next financial year, Ndegwa said, adding that the company’s initial activities included building two data centers and making a first test call.
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