Safaricom Ethiopia posted a 66.1 per cent rise in first-quarter revenue as strong growth in data usage and customer acquisitions continued to drive the operator's expansion in one of Africa's fastest-growing telecom markets.
The company reported total revenue of Sh5.04 billion for the quarter ended June 30, 2026, up from Sh3.04 billion a year earlier, while service revenue grew 67.6 per cent to Sh4.95 billion. On a constant currency basis, service revenue more than doubled, rising 102.2 per cent, highlighting the impact of the Ethiopian birr's depreciation against the Kenyan shilling.
Safaricom Ethiopia's customer base continued to expand rapidly, with 14.7 million three-month active customers, a 46.1 per cent increase from a year earlier, while one-month active customers rose 50.4 per cent to 11.6 million. The company expanded its network to 3,592 base stations during the quarter to support growing demand.
Mobile data remained the business's biggest revenue driver, contributing 72.8 per cent of service revenue compared with 68.3 per cent a year earlier. Data revenue climbed 78.6 per cent to Sh3.60 billion, supported by a 55.3 per cent increase in active data customers to 8.64 million and a 15.7 per cent rise in average data usage per subscriber to 7.6GB.
Voice revenue increased 36 per cent to Sh846.1 million, while messaging revenue nearly doubled to Sh68.7 million, reflecting continued customer growth across core services.
The company's mobile money platform also maintained strong momentum. Three-month active M-PESA users more than doubled to 5.69 million, while active merchants rose 147.7 per cent to nearly 90,000. Transaction values increased 174.8 per cent to Sh16.03 billion, with transaction volumes reaching 108.7 million.
Despite the rapid growth in usage, M-PESA generated only Sh4.3 million in revenue during the quarter, underscoring that the business remains in its early monetisation phase.
The company said Ethiopia's macroeconomic environment continued to improve, supported by IMF-backed reforms and stronger economic growth, although inflation accelerated to 13.4 percent in May following higher food and fuel prices linked to the Middle East conflict. The company added that foreign exchange rates had stabilized after a period of sharp depreciation and reiterated its target of achieving EBITDA break-even during the current financial year.
Conversion of ETB to KES was at an average exchange rate of KES to ETB of 0.822 for Q1 FY27, 0.987 for Q1 FY26
