Safaricom has reported a 35.9 percent rise in half-year net income to KSh58.2 billion, as its Ethiopian business moved close to break-even and M-Pesa revenue crossed KSh100 billion in six months, TechWeez reported.

Group service revenue rose 13.1 percent to KSh226.1 billion in the six months to 30 September 2026, while group earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 27.5 percent to KSh129.2 billion. Operating profit climbed 39.8 percent to KSh91.1 billion, and the company held its full-year operating profit guidance at KSh180 billion to KSh187 billion.

Ethiopia closes in on break-even

In Ethiopia, service revenue jumped 71.6 percent to KSh10.6 billion, and the three-month active customer base grew 38.4 percent to 15.4 million. The unit's EBITDA loss narrowed 96.5 percent to KSh434.4 million, from about KSh12.56 billion a year earlier, and its net loss shrank 43.2 percent to KSh8.8 billion. Safaricom is targeting EBITDA break-even in Ethiopia by the end of the financial year in March 2027, NewsFlash reported.

The headline improvement needs a caveat: analysis of the results found about 69 percent of the gain came from smaller currency losses rather than trading, and after network costs and finance charges Ethiopia still lost KSh16.6 billion in the half. Even so, chief executive Peter Ndegwa said lower Ethiopian losses were "starting to really make impact at a group level".