Safaricom, a Kenyan mobile operator company, made an Sh50 billion ($423.8-million) profit before tax from its M-Pesa mobile money service in the year ended in March 2022.
According to Business Daily, the performance statement shows that while M-Pesa business contributed 49 percent of the telco’s profit before tax of Sh102.2 billion ($14.7-billion), its revenue of Sh107.7 billion ($15.5-billion) accounted for 36 percent of the company’s total revenue of Sh298.07 billion ($43-billion).
The mobile money unit brings more money for Safaricom than other business lines such as voice and data.
“Uptake of mobile money services continued to grow, as with its convenience and cashless nature it was perceived as helping curb the spread of Covid-19,” the telco says.
“In general, the Kenyan ICT sector has experienced robust growth as a result of the pandemic having pushed consumers to adopt online ways of conducting business and mobile money payments,” it adds.
On the other hand, revenue growth for the mobile money unit stood at Sh25 billion ($3.6-billion) in the year to March 2022.