Safaricom PLC has today announced its unaudited results for the six months ended 2019. Among the key performance indicators of its financial performance for the half-year were Mpesa Revenue, Mobile data revenue, voice service and messaging revenues.
Revenue growth for the half-year to September 2019 was reported at 5.3% driven by robust performance across M-PESA and fixed data and strong customer growth offsetting the decline in the traditional revenue streams and soft performance on mobile data.
However, the exit of betting firms from the industry impacted Mpesa revenues from betting and gaming industry.M-PESA, a key driver in the revenue growth in the period recording a year on year growth of 18.2% but the slow-down in the gaming industry took a toll on the gaming revenues. Mpesa revenues from betting dropped by 15.5% although the company added 2.6 million active M-PESA customers with MPESA accounting for 33.8% of service revenue.
Safaricom said that they had always perceived gaming as a toxic revenue source and always hoped that the government would sanitize it. They had put measures to protect themselves in the event of although the betting industry remains prospective and they have always focused on encouraging the youths to use their digital platforms to transform their lives.
Concerned about proposed amendments by Kenya Information and communication acts that require them to separate GSM and mobile money and the requirement for bloggers and social media administrators to be registered, Safaricom noted that the two propositions do not support the growth of the industry.
They welcome the Airtel Telkom merger but want the following issues settled first; The debt owed by the two operators of about Ksh1.2 Billion incurred for the provision of various services including interconnection, colocation and fibre research paid, rebalanced frequency allocation and equal treatment of operators to create a level playfield.
