NAIROBI- Kenya’s Safaricom posted a rise of 7.7 percent in revenue for the first half ended September, driven by growth in its mobile financial services and data, the firm said on Friday.
The telecom operator, part-owned by Vodacom and Britain’s Vodafone, said its earnings before interest and taxation jumped 18.7 percent, resulting in a 22-percent increase in its earnings per share.
POST LOSES
In early October, Safaricom said that they lost 1.6 percent of its telecom subscribers’ market share in the quarter ended June, marking the third straight quarterly drop for the country’s biggest operator.
The firm had 29.7 million subscribers during the period, data from the regulator Communications Authority (CA) seen by Reuters on Monday showed.
While the users’ base was up 0.7 percent from the previous quarter, Safaricom’s rivals, including Bharti Airtel’s Kenyan unit added more subscribers, resulting in the company’s reduced market share.
Airtel’s subscribers rose 11.9 percent to secure a market share of 21.4 percent. Safaricom subscribers’ market share has plunged to 65.4 percent from 72.6 percent in June last year.