Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa. Photo/courtesy.
Safaricom has reported a 52.1 percent rise in group net income to Sh42.8 billion for the half year ended September 2025, driven by robust performance in Kenya and reduced losses in its Ethiopia operations.
The telco’s service revenue grew 11 percent year-on-year to Sh199.9 billion, supported by growth in M-PESA, mobile data, and fixed services. Safaricom said its Ethiopia business continued to gain traction, with customer additions and improved cost efficiencies helping to narrow losses.
CEO Peter Ndegwa said the results reflect resilient demand across the company’s core services and continued progress in Ethiopia, as Safaricom advances its regional growth strategy. He added that investment in network expansion and new digital services remains a priority to support Kenya’s digital economy and extend connectivity across the operator’s footprint.
The Kenyan market remained the core earnings contributor for Safaricom. Service revenue in Kenya rose 9.3 percent to Sh192.1 billion, led by M-PESA and mobile data. M-PESA revenue increased 14 percent to Sh88.1 billion, driven primarily by merchant and business payments.
Transaction volumes on M-PESA rose 26.5 percent to 21.87 billion. Active Lipa Na M-PESA merchants grew 32 percent to 870,700, while Pochi la Biashara tills expanded 73 percent to 1.5 million.Mobile data revenue increased 13.4 percent to Sh40.32 billion, with average data usage per customer rising to 4.85GB per month. Voice revenue fell 2.1 percent to Sh39.72 billion, while messaging declined 11.7 percent to Sh5.48 billion.
Despite earlier losses in Ethiopia, the telco remains profitable owing to its integration to Kenya’s economy and the growing digitization in the region which is fueling mobile data usage.
