Safaricom Ethiopia has reported explosive 136% growth in its service revenue, which surged to KES 6.2 billion for the six months ending September 30, 2025. The results announced on Thursday show rapid customer adoption in the new market, even as the unit grapples with significant pricing pressures and a surprising drop in M-PESA revenue.
The subsidiary, a key part of Safaricom’s group strategy, also successfully narrowed its net loss by 20.1% to KES 15.5 billion, a sign that the massive-scale investment is beginning to stabilize.
The primary driver of the revenue boom was the massive uptake of core telecom services. Mobile data revenue, the unit’s largest earner, grew by 102.2% to KES 4.1 billion. Voice revenue saw an even more dramatic increase of 328.5% to KES 1.4 billion. This growth was fueled by an 83.7% jump in Safaricom Ethiopia’s customer base, which now stands at 11.1 million users.
However, the rosy top-line figures were contrasted by a significant challenge in its fintech division. M-PESA revenue in Ethiopia fell by 45.6% year-on-year, registering just KES 8.7 million.
This decline comes despite the company’s significant push for the mobile money service and suggests Safaricom has not yet begun to effectively monetize the platform in Ethiopia, likely prioritizing customer acquisition and transaction volume over fee-based revenue in the service’s introductory phase.
The results were delivered against a challenging macroeconomic backdrop. Safaricom Group CEO Peter Ndegwa confirmed the subsidiary continues to face pricing and currency reform challenges.
The pricing challenge refers to an ongoing issue in the Ethiopian market where data is reportedly being sold at unsustainable, below-cost levels. Safaricom Ethiopia’s CEO, Wim Vanhelleputte, has previously called for price rationalization, warning that aggressive, high-volume discounts threaten the long-term viability and future investment in the country’s telecom sector.
Furthermore, the Ethiopian government’s currency reforms, while stabilizing the economy and ending its hyperinflationary accounting status, have also led to a significant depreciation of the birr. This volatility impacts the value of earnings when translated back to Kenyan Shillings for the group’s consolidated reports.
Despite these hurdles, Safaricom’s capital expenditure (CAPEX) in Ethiopia was cut by 66% to KES 9.5 billion, signaling that the most intensive phase of network construction is slowing as the company pivots to optimizing its growing operations.
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