You will soon be able to purchase a 4G smartphone in installments of just 20 bob a day thanks to Safaricom. Progress is good and in the fast moving world, a good handset and fast internet are the way to go, except a lot of people have been unable to enjoy these due to budget constraints.
This purchase plan is in partnership with Google and is riding on the back of the success of the Maisha Ni Digital Campaign that saw over 1 Million Safaricom customers acquiring 4G enabled devices. This new campaign seeks to empower an extra one million 2G customers to upgrade to 4G enabled devices in this financial year.
The announcement was made as the company released financial results for the year ended 31st March 2020 which saw the profit and total comprehensive income for the year grow 19.5% YoY but normalised for the exceptional share of profit of joint venture, at 14.3% YoY to KES71.7 billion with service revenue growing to KES 251.2billion.
Speaking during the results announcement, Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa said, “smartphone device is critical in supporting the new realities brought about by COVID-19. This proposition aims to support Kenyans during and beyond this pandemic by enabling them access more opportunities, be it learning, working or running businesses from the comfort of their homes,” said Ndegwa. More details on this will be released by the end of this quarter.
“Android’s goal has always been to bring the power of computing to everyone. Access to the opportunities the internet offers is critical for any nations’ economic growth and social inclusion. Majority of Kenyans and Africans at large access the internet via mobile broadband. In Kenya approximately 60% of the mobile phone install base is still on 2G feature phones and 40% smartphones with key barriers to people coming online being device and data affordability. We believe that this collaboration with Safaricom will bring more Kenyans access and the means to partake in the opportunities that exist online,” Mariama Abdullahi, Director, Android and Platforms Partnerships for Africa.
This year’s financial results were driven by growth in M-PESA revenue, which grew by 12.6% contributing 33.6% of the service revenue and mobile data which grew by 12.1% to KES 40.67billion.
Key highlights of the results
- Service revenue growth of 4.8% to KES 251.22bn
- Voice service (incoming and outgoing) revenue shrunk by 1.4% to KES 94.45bn.
- M-PESA revenue grew by 12.6% to KES 84.44bn.
- Mobile data revenue increased by 12.1% to KES 40.67bn.
- Messaging revenue declined by 12.3% to KES 17.19bn.
- Fixed service revenue increased by 10.7% to KES 8.97bn.
- One month active overall customer base increased by 9.5% to 28.63mn.
- One month active M-PESA customers increased 10.0% to 24.91mn.
- One month active chargeable mobile data customers increased 10.2% to 19.62mn.
Strong financial performance
Safaricom announced earnings/profit before Interest of KES 101.01bn with an EBIT margin of 38.6%, up 3.0ppts YoY.
- Free Cash Flow up 11.4% to KES 70.27bn.