Safaricom records six percent half-year profit fall

Giant telco  Safaricom PLC has reported a reduced Ksh.33 billion half year profit representing a six percent fall in earnings from Ksh.35.2 billion last year.

This the company’s first profit fall in the mid-year review since 2012.

The slide has been attributed to a decline in M-Pesa revenues from the roll out of free cash transfers below Ksh.1000 to Ksh.35.9 billion from Ksh.42 billion last year.

The impact of the free cash transfers was tabulated at Ksh.6.1 billion to include Ksh.4.5 billion hit on transfers and a Ksh.1.6 billion hit on payments.

“The free cash transfers have weighed hard on our half year results. M-Pesa revenues now account for 30 per cent of total revenues in comparison to 33 per cent last year,” noted Safaricom Acting Chief Finance Officer Illana Darcy.

Safaricom has nevertheless recorded a 14.1 per cent growth in mobile data revenues to Ksh.22.2 billion from Ksh.19.5 billion on the back of the increased data usage by customers with the average chargeable gigabyte per user growing by 33 per cent to 1.4GB in the period