The growth of East Africa’s largest mobile operator is the focus of this edition of Business Day Spotlight.
Host Mudiwa Gavaza is joined by Peter Ndegwa, Safaricom’s group CEO. Ndegwa outlines Safaricom’s performance, based on the group’s earnings report to March.
Safaricom, Vodacom’s Kenyan affiliate, is the largest mobile network provider in East Africa, valued at 1.03-trillion Kenyan shillings, or $8bn.
The company achieved revenues of $3bn for the first time in the period and is celebrating operating the M-Pesa mobile money service.
Vodacom owns 35% of the Kenya-listed company, which contributes about 10% to its group earnings.
According to Ndegwa, Kenya continues to be the group’s biggest earner, but he expects that their recent entry into Ethiopia will be a big source of growth.
Listen to the conversation:
He attributes a large part of the group’s performance in Kenya to M-Pesa, particularly around small businesses and the technology ecosystem that the service has created.
In the discussion, the telecom executive highlights Safaricom’s performance in the past financial year; its strategy for growth in Ethiopia; and the importance of M-Pesa mobile payments. Ndegwa also explains why and how mobile data is so affordable, at about 50 US cents a gigabyte, in Kenya.
• ‘Business Day Spotlight’ is a MultimediaLIVE Production.
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