M-PESA continues to be one of the biggest revenue streams for Safaricom. In the full year ended March 2023, the mobile money service revenue grew by 8.8% to Ksh 117.2 billion.
This growth, Safaricom says was supported by increased usage and growth of chargeable transactions per one-month active customers by 16.2% YoY to 23.54 transactions.
One-month active M-PESA Average Revenue per Unit (ARPU) rose 1.9% YoY to KShs 311.28.
Total transaction value and volumes grew 21.4% to KShs 35.86 trillon and 33.5% to KShs 21.03 billion respectively supporting the growth in FY23.
M-PESA one month active customers grew 5.2% to 32.11 million with 76.4% of total registered M-PESA customers making up the one-month active M-PESA customers.
M-PESA remains the biggest revenue earner accounting for 39.7% of service revenue.
This revenue growth is expected to grow further after the company announced that it had received the license to operationalize M-Pesa in Ethiopia. The license was granted by the National Bank of Ethiopia.
“We are delighted to receive the license to establish M-Pesa and start providing Mobile Financial Services to our customers,’’ said Anwar Soussa, CEO of Safaricom Ethiopia.
‘’M-Pesa comes with a tested and proven track record of enabling financial inclusion in Africa, provides services to more than 51 million customers across seven countries in Africa with a safe, secure, and affordable way to send and receive money, top-up airtime, make bill payments, get short-term loans and much more.’’ he added.
Prior to issuing the license, The National Bank of Ethiopia amended the National Payment Systems Proclamation to provide the necessary regulatory framework for foreign-owned telecom operators to provide Mobile Financial services (MFS) in Ethiopia, done in consultation with the industry players in the country.
Safaricom says it paid $150 million (Ksh20.5 billion based on the current exchange rates) for the license.
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