Safaricom Ethiopia Reports Progress: Investing in Growth, Expanding Access, and Building for the Long Term
May 9 2025
Safaricom Ethiopia demonstrated strong performance across multiple operating metrices for the financial year ended 31st March 2025 (FY25), including increasing commercial momentum, continued expansion infrastructure across the country, and deeper community engagements, whilst navigating the short-term impact of the macroeconomic reforms.
Wim Vanhelleputte, CEO of Safaricom Ethiopia, reflected on the company’s progress and its outlook: “Over the last 12 months, we have increased our customers base and network coverage, thanks to the robust investments and strategic leadership. These positive developments are made possible with the support of the government of Ethiopia, our regulators, our shareholders and our strong team. Notable developments in the country including launching of the capital markets, carrying out forex reforms and opening the financial services sector are excellent indicators to the broader macroeconomic reform efforts that will enhance the private sector’s role in the economy. On our part, we are pleased to note the contributions our business has made in enabling and driving Ethiopia’s digital transformation in communication, connectivity and payments services and will continue to expand our services to support and enable more people to leverage the world-class digital capabilities we provide as we play our part in enabling Ethiopia’s digital future.”
This past financial year saw significant expansion of our network infrastructure, with 4G services now reaching almost 50% of Ethiopia's population through 3,141 strategically deployed sites. The expansion enabled 7.1 million 90 days active data users with each consuming an average of 6.5GB per month. This is a 53% increase in data consumption per user, over the previous fiscal year. By the end of March 2025, we acquired 8.8 million 90-day active voice and data customers, marking a 103% year-on-year increase in our 90-day active customer base.
M-PESA emerged stronger, serving 2.4 million 90-day active customers and processing transactions worth 15.8 billion ETB. New use cases such as fuel payments and inbound international remittances, alongside strategic integrations with banks for services like airtime purchase and utility payments, have broadened the platform’s value.
As a company still in its investment phase, Safaricom Ethiopia incurred an operating loss of about 47 billion ETB. This loss is largely in line with our expectations at this heavy investment stage of the company’s growth, but it also includes the impact of foreign exchange reforms, that we expect to normalize going forward. Notwithstanding, our revenue has grown by 270%, to 7.2 billion ETB in the Fiscal Year 2025, up from 2.7 billion ETB the previous financial year.
Community investment remained a cornerstone of operations, with ETB 100 million allocated to education, health and agriculture initiatives where we donated laptops, routers, with six months of free internet for various schools across the country. We are also proud to note that the Kefeta youth program, which imparts digital skills and provides livelihood training, reached 2 million youth across the country. We continued to support our communities during their times of need including helping the Ashewa community to recover from the unfortunate market fire accident by rebuilding their shops, providing food items to the land slide victims in Gofa zone & earthquake victims in Afar Region, and making a 10 million ETB contribution to the Mekedonia Humanitarian Association.
Safaricom Ethiopia’s annual performance for the fiscal year that ended on 31st March 2025, has laid a strong foundation for the next phase of growth. We remain focused on scaling our impact and building for the future — with confidence, purpose, and a deep commitment to being a reliable partner in the country’s digital transformation. As economic reforms take shape, we will continue to create lasting value, deepen our community impact, and contribute meaningfully to Ethiopia’s long-term prosperity.
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