Safaricom, Kenya’s largest telecommunications company, reported a strong performance for the first half of its 2025 financial year, with group earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) rising 54.5% to $495 million, up from the same period last year.
The company’s Kenya operations remained its primary profit driver, while losses in Ethiopia, its major expansion market, continued to narrow. Safaricom entered Ethiopia in 2022, following the government’s decision to liberalise the previously closed telecom sector and allow foreign competition.
Safaricom—which is partly owned by South Africa’s Vodacom Group and Britain’s Vodafone Group—also recorded a rise in group service revenue to $1.52 billion for the six months ending September 30, 2025, compared with $1.37 billion during the same period in 2024.
The performance highlights the growing strength of Safaricom’s core business in Kenya, supported by steady growth in data, mobile money, and enterprise services, while its Ethiopian operations gradually gain traction in a competitive market.
Meanwhile, Vodacom, which holds a significant stake in Safaricom, announced in a trading update that it expects headline earnings per share (HEPS) for the six months to September 30, 2025, to rise by 30% to 40% year-on-year. This translates to a HEPS range of $0.24 to $0.26 for the period.
Vodacom said it will publish its interim results on November 10, 2025.
