Safaricom PLC's net profit reduced by 18.71 percent to Kes 42.7 billion in the full year ending March 2024, a result attributed to the investment in an Ethiopian subsidiary.

According to the results released on Thursday, the net profit dropped from Kes 52.48 billion in a similar period last year, representing a Kes 9.8 billion fall.

Safaricom entered the Ethiopian market in October 2022. As of December, shareholders of the Ethiopian entity contributed $1.6 billion to the new company, while Safaricom’s stood at $834 million.

“At a group level, incorporating the startup costs and investments in Safaricom Ethiopia, the group closed at an EBIT of KES.94.9 billion, a 3.5% growth year on year.”

Further M-Pesa revenue grew by 19.4 percent to Kes 139.9 billion in the period driven by increased usage.

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Likewise, mobile data revenue grew by a double-digit of 18.1 percent to Kes 63.24 billion.

“The earnings surpassed both the market expectations and the group guidance range of Kes 129billion-132billion.”

“This performance was driven by customer segmentation, public sector digitisation, investments in new technologies and better use of data and analytics to understand and serve customers better.”