East Africa’s largest listed company Safaricom Plc on Thursday released its full-year financial results for the period ended 31st March 2021 reporting a slight increase of 0.6% in total revenue to Ksh 264 Billion from Ksh 262.6 Billion in a similar period in 2020.

Earnings before interest and taxes fell by 5.3% to Ksh 96.1 Billion from Ksh 101.5 Billion in 2020.

Safaricom Profit
The telco’s profit before tax declined by 11.5% to Ksh 93.6 Billion from Ksh 105.77 Billion posted in the same period in 2020. On the other hand, profit after tax fell by 6.8% to Ksh 68.6 Billion from Ksh 73.65 Billion.

Mobile data business grew by 11.5% to Ksh 44.79 billion while M-PESA and Voice revenue declined marginally with M-PESA recording a 2.1% drop to Ksh 82. 64 billion and voice dropping by 4.6% to register revenue of Kshs 82.55 billion.

M-PESA accounted for 33% of the total service revenue down from 33.6% last year, mainly impacted by the waiver of the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) transactions fees.

Dividend Payment
“Despite a tough financial year, the company is committed to investing in the business and maintaining a consistent dividend payout ratio in line with our dividend policy.” Said the company’s CEO Peter Ndegwa.

Safaricom’s board declared a dividend of Ksh 0.92 per ordinary share amounting to Ksh 36.86 Billion to be approved during the company’s AGM to be held on 30th July 2021.

This is in addition to the interim dividend of KSh 0.45 per ordinary share amounting to KSh 18.029 Billion declared during the half-year period in February this year. This now brings the total dividends for the year to Ksh 54.89 Billion representing Ksh 1.37 per ordinary share in respect of the year ended 31st March 2021.

The company’s management expects a strong recovery in 2022 estimating the telco’s earnings before interest and taxes to grow in the range of Ksh 105 Billion to Ksh 108 Billion from Ksh 96.16 Billion in 2021. It expects to spend about Ksh 40 Billion to Ksh 43 Billion in 2022 Capital expenditures from Ksh 34.96 Billion in 2021.