Safaricom PLC has recorded an operating profit of Ksh139.9 billion for the financial year ended March 31.

Following the announcement by Group Chief Executive Officer Peter Ndegwa, Safaricom now becomes the first company in the region to crack the billion dollar mark in single year profits.

The 2023/2024 results surpassed the telco's estimate of between Ksh129 billion and Ksh132 billion.

During the review period, Safaricom's revenue grew by 13.4 per cent to 344 billion with M-Pesa contributing 42 per cent at Ksh140 billion. The GSM business contributed Ksh173 billion representing 57.2 per cent.

The telecommunications giant increased it's net income by 13.7 per cent to Ksh84.74 billion.

Safaricom attributed the success to public sector digitisation, improvement in data analysis to serve customers better, among other factor.

"We are extremely pleased with what we have been able to achieve as a group despite the significant start-up costs in our Ethiopia business. We expect that from 2025, Ethiopia will start being a significant growth contributor at group level for both top and bottom line,” Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa said.

“As a result of our razor-sharp focus on our customers, we are now a billion-dollar business in Kenya.”

Ndegwa revealed that Safaricom Ethiopia had grown it's customer base to slightly over 4.4 million.

“We have built a world-class network that is currently almost half Kenya’s size and we are on track to meet our licence obligations. We are hence pleased with the commercial momentum in Ethiopia and proud that we have been able to deliver this momentum with a Safaricom Ethiopia team that is 90% Ethiopians,” Ndegwa said.