Safaricom profit jumps 67% as Ethiopia losses shrink

African telecom giant Safaricom Plc reported a 67 percent increase in net income for the financial year ending March 2026, after its costly expansion into Ethiopia began showing signs of recovery.

The Kenyan-based company profit rose to KES 99.7 billion ($772.3 million), above analyst expectations of KES 92.4 billion. It was Safaricom’s third consecutive year of profit growth.

The biggest shift came from Ethiopia, where startup losses fell by half after years of heavy spending on network rollout, staff recruitment, licences and customer acquisition.

The results show that Safaricom is now running two very different but increasingly complementary businesses across East Africa. Its Kenyan business continues to generate strong cash flow, while its Ethiopian operation is slowly moving from an expensive startup phase toward scale and profitability.

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In Kenya, Safaricom delivered its strongest performance yet. Service revenue rose 10 percent to KES 400.8 billion, while EBITDA increased 13.7 percent to KES 233.9 billion. Net income from the Kenyan business climbed nearly 25 percent to KES 119.1 billion.

Much of that growth continues to come from M-Pesa, the company’s mobile money platform that has become central to daily life in Kenya.

For millions of users without easy access to traditional banking, M-Pesa functions as a digital wallet, payment platform and savings tool. Small business owners, traders and transport operators rely on the service for daily transactions, helping Safaricom earn fees from transfers, bill payments and merchant services.

Rising smartphone adoption and higher internet usage are also boosting the company’s data revenue as more consumers stream videos, shop online and use digital financial services.

But investors are paying close attention to Ethiopia, which has long been seen as the company’s biggest long-term opportunity.

Safaricom entered Ethiopia about four years ago after the country opened its telecom market to foreign competition. The expansion came with major risks. The company had to build infrastructure from scratch in a highly competitive and regulated environment while competing against state-backed operators.

Those investments weighed heavily on group earnings in previous years.

That pressure is now easing.

Safaricom Ethiopia has grown to 13.6 million active customers over a 90-day period, including 10.7 million monthly active users and 5.2 million M-Pesa customers. Data usage, voice traffic and mobile money transactions all recorded strong growth during the year.

The larger customer base is helping Safaricom spread infrastructure and operating costs across more subscribers, improving efficiency and reducing losses.

The company’s improving performance also suggests that mobile money adoption in Ethiopia could become a major growth engine in the coming years, similar to what happened in Kenya.

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Analysts say Ethiopia remains one of Africa’s biggest untapped telecom markets because of its large population and low banking penetration.

Safaricom’s growing confidence in the market was further reflected in its recent approval to raise KES 40 billion ($308 million) through a corporate bond to support infrastructure upgrades in both Kenya and Ethiopia.

The company’s global reputation is also strengthening. Brand Finance recently ranked Safaricom as the world’s fifth-strongest telecom brand, highlighting strong customer trust and loyalty.

The latest results underline how African telecom companies are increasingly relying on digital financial services, data consumption and regional expansion to drive growth as traditional voice revenues slow across the continent.