Telco giant Safaricom has today announced its 2019/2020 Full Year results. Safaricom has reported a 19.5 percent increase in profit after tax amounting to Sh74.7 billion. Among the key drivers for the revenue growth were M-PESA, Data and service revenue. Mobile money grew by 12.6% year in year in the period to Ksh 84.44 Billion. However excluding the impact of betting and our COVID-19 response, M-PESA is reported to have grow 17.2%. This growth was driven by savings and lending and person to person which amounts to two thirds of the total growth.
“The COVID-19 pandemic presents an opportunity for Safaricom to leverage its digital and data capability to support customers and community during this period and through the recoveryprocess. We will focus on developing a range of digital products and services that will provide sustainable solutions to challenges in sectors like: agriculture, health, education and essential services. Whilst FY21 is going to be a challenging one, I feel as a business we are well placed to navigate our way through the uncertainty that lies ahead,” said Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa
Since the telco giant waived the charges for sending money less than Ksh 1000 to cushion Kenyans from the effects of COVID-19, Safaricom noted that it has experienced a slowdown in the growth rates across withdrawals and payments, partly driven by a general economic slowdown, which is likely to get worse as we face the coronavirus pandemic in FY21.
But the firm remains hopeful that even as they are facing some short term headwinds, there is still a lot of opportunity to grow and theyremain excited about M-PESA’s future.
