Safaricom today announced plans to provide 100% 4G network coverage across the country by end of this year despite COVID-19.
Safaricom Chief Executive Officer Peter Ndegwa made the announcement as he released financial results for the half-year ended 30th September 2020.
“As we go into our third decade as an organization, we aim to create a technology business by developing new digital ecosystems in health, agriculture and education sectors as we aim to provide digital solutions for our customers,” added Mr Ndegwa.
The continued focus on customers led to a 10.2% increase in one month active subscribers for the period, with customers growing across all revenue streams.
With the new business strategy and the renewed focus on the customer, Safaricom expects to build on this momentum that has been gained during the second quarter of the period under review.
Due to COVID-19 Safaricom’s net profit decreased by 6.0% to KES 33.07 billion with service revenue hitting KES 118.41 billion. The firm also saw a 4.8% drop in Service Revenue and a 6.5 percent drop in its Voice service revenue dropped to KES 40.19 billion. Safaricom’s M-PESA revenue dropped by 14.5% to KES 35.89bn. However, the twenty-year telco increased its capital expenditure by 25.5% to KES 22.75 Billion.
The KES 22.75 Billion are part of the investments into its network infrastructure to support the country’s economic development.
The firm also launched Pochi la Biashara, that will allow them to separate business and personal wallets and Lipa Na M-PESA Merchant App that enables small businesses to effectively manage their business tills,” said Mr Ndegwa.
Other gains include a 14.1 percent increase in mobile data revenue to KES 22.23bn, a 10.2 percent increase in its one-month active customer base to 30.31m, and a 13.5% increase in its one month active M-PESA customers to 26.79m. It’s one-month active mobile data customers increased by 11.6% to 22.91m.
