Safaricom earnings lifted by mobile data and payment service

By Reuters

Kenya’s mobile phone firm Safaricom said its full-year earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose 17 percent, lifted by revenue from its mobile data and M-Pesa mobile money service.

The nation’s top mobile operator, which is 40 percent owned by Britain’s Vodafone, said earnings were expected to climb 7 to 10 percent this year.

Full-year EBITDA to March 2016 was 83.1 billion shillings ($826.45 million), while the forecast for EBITDA in the year to March 2017 was for 89 billion shillings to 92 billion shillings, Chief Executive Officer Bob Collymore told an investor briefing.

Capital expenditure for the year to March 2017 was forecast at between 32 billion and 33 billion shillings.

For the year to March 2016, revenues from M-Pesa climbed 27 pct to 41.50 billion shillings as customers with even basic handsets use them to increasingly pay bills, send money and make other transactions.

Mobile data revenue in the year to March 2016 climbed 43 percent to 21.2 billion shillings, but voice revenues climbed more slowly, by just 4 percent to 90.8 billion shillings.

($1 = 100.5500 Kenyan shillings)