en.Wedoany.com Reported - East Africa's largest telecom operator, Kenya's Safaricom, released its full-year results for the fiscal year 2026 ending March 31, 2026, on May 7, 2026. The financial report shows the group's net profit climbed to KSh 100 billion (approximately USD 774 million at current exchange rates), a year-on-year increase of 67.3%, setting a record for the company's highest-ever profit and marking the third consecutive year of profit growth. This figure represents a significant leap from the KSh 69.8 billion recorded in the previous fiscal year and surpassed the analysts' consensus estimate of KSh 92.4 billion.
Safaricom Group CEO Peter Ndegwa attributed the performance to strong strategic execution during the results presentation: "We demonstrated strong execution in the first year of our five-year strategy, with accelerated growth in the second half enabling the group to exceed its stated guidance. The excellent performance in the Kenyan market effectively offset the phased impacts of currency reforms and market remediation actions in Ethiopia." Group Board Chairman Adil Khawaja further noted that although the company remains in a sustained investment phase in Ethiopia, the initial emergence of scale effects has begun to improve business momentum and narrow early-stage losses. This balanced state of "growth, investment, and discipline" is precisely what the board expects to see at this stage of development.
The driving forces behind this substantial profit surge can be clearly broken down into three main themes. First, the mobile money and data businesses in the Kenyan home market formed a dual growth engine. The financial report shows M-PESA's full-year revenue reached KSh 182.7 billion, a year-on-year increase of 13.4%, accounting for 45.6% of Kenya's service revenue by contribution. Total M-PESA transaction value for the year exceeded KSh 41.68 trillion, with monthly active customers growing to 40.99 million. The deepening of payment use cases formed the foundation for growth—Lipa na M-PESA merchant numbers reached 1 million, Pochi la Biashara merchants surged 81.5% year-on-year to 2.1 million, expanding the total merchant base to 3.1 million. Meanwhile, mobile data revenue grew 18.3% year-on-year to KSh 92.9 billion, driven by smartphone penetration and digital consumption, reflecting sustained increases in usage by Kenyan consumers in areas like video streaming, online shopping, and digital financial services.
Second, the trend signal of the Ethiopian business shifting from a profit drag to an incremental contributor has become increasingly clear. Approximately four years after entering the Ethiopian market, Safaricom Ethiopia's subscriber base has climbed to 13.6 million, with its network covering 60% of the country's population and operating 3,504 base stations. The subsidiary's full-year service revenue surged 86.6% year-on-year to KSh 14.1 billion, contributing 12.5% to the group's overall service revenue growth. The accelerated revenue ramp-up, coupled with the dilution of infrastructure costs over a larger subscriber base, has significantly narrowed start-up phase losses, and its complementarity with the Kenyan home business is being progressively validated.
Third, the group's overall financial structure exhibits a characteristic accelerated migration from traditional voice to digital services. The group's full-year service revenue climbed 11.5% to KSh 414.1 billion, with the Kenyan market's service revenue surpassing the KSh 400 billion mark for the first time. EBIT grew 15.3% year-on-year to KSh 182.3 billion. Based on strong profitability and a healthy balance sheet, Safaricom declared a dividend of KSh 2 per share, totaling KSh 80.1 billion in payouts, a substantial increase of 66.7% compared to the previous fiscal year.
Since the start of 2026, Safaricom has received consecutive recognition in capital markets and for its brand value. The company was recently approved to raise KSh 40 billion through the corporate bond market for network infrastructure upgrades in both Kenya and Ethiopia. The latest ranking by global brand valuation firm Brand Finance listed Safaricom as the fifth strongest telecom brand globally. Entering the second year of its Vision 2030 strategy, Safaricom is accelerating its evolution from a telecom operator centered on Kenya's voice business into a pan-East African digital platform anchored by M-PESA digital financial services, with Ethiopia as its second growth pole.
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