Safaricom Ethiopia’s revenue rose 66.1% to KSh 5.04 Bn in Q1 FY27 as active customers neared 15 million and mobile data sales jumped 78.6%, strengthening the company's push to scale operations and achieve EBITDA break-even this financial year.

Service revenue increased 67.6% to KSh 4.95 Bn in the three months ended June 2026, while constant-currency growth reached 102.2%, highlighting the impact of the Ethiopian Birr’s depreciation on reported earnings.
Total revenue growth was also stronger at constant currency, rising 100.3%.
The company has maintained its break-even target in the 2027 financial year, but did not disclose EBITDA, operating costs or net losses.

Mobile data remained the main growth engine, with revenue increasing to KSh 3.60 Bn from KSh 2.02 Bn a year earlier. Data accounted for 72.8% of service revenue, up from 68.3%, while voice’s contribution declined to 17.1% from 21.1% despite voice revenue rising 36.0% to KSh 846.10 Mn.

Safaricom Ethiopia q1 2027

The latest quarter shows how quickly the Ethiopian operation has expanded. Q1 FY27 revenue was equivalent to 53.6% of the KSh 9.41 Bn generated during the whole of FY25 and 71.8% of FY24 revenue. Mobile data revenue has more than doubled from 1.60 Bn in Q1 FY25 and is almost ten times the KSh 361.30 Mn reported in Q1 FY24.

Three-month active customers rose 46.1% to 14.70 Mn, from 10.06 Mn a year earlier and 4.57 Mn in Q1 FY25. One-month active customers increased 50.4% to 11.63 Mn, while three-month active data customers grew 47.0% to 11.52 Mn.

Data usage per chargeable subscriber increased 15.7% to about 7.8 GB. Local-currency monetisation also strengthened, with data ARPU rising 39.1% to ETB 174.93. Reported voice ARPU fell 2.1% in KES terms but increased 17.9% in ETB, showing that the decline was largely caused by currency translation.

Network sites increased 12.0% to 3,592, substantially slower than customer growth. This lifted three-month active customers per site to about 4,092 from 3,138 a year earlier, supporting management’s position that the operation is moving towards higher network utilisation. The company said cost optimisation and improved fuel supply had also supported operating efficiency and network availability.

M-PESA continued to expand, but monetisation remained weak. One-month active customers more than doubled to 2.58 Mn, active merchants rose 147.7% to 89,877 and transaction value surged 174.8% to 16.03 Bn. Transaction volume increased 157.7% to 108.70 Mn, yet M-PESA revenue declined 15.6% to 4.30 Mn.

Total funding reached US$2.67 Bn, including US$2.31 Bn in equity. Safaricom PLC’s contribution rose to US$1.23 Bn, while deferred vendor payables fell 57.6% to US$72 Mn.

Safaricom Ethiopia Targets Break-Even as Revenue Jumps 66%