Safaricom Ethiopia – FY2024 at a glance
In both customers and usage, we have shown sustained growth momentum in Ethiopia.
- 4.4Mn 90-day active customers
- 4.5Mn Total Registered M-PESA Customers
- 2,806 Network 2G/3G/4G Sites
- 38% Population Coverage
- 887 Permanent Employees
- 4.3GB per Mobile Data User (March 23 exit at 6.2GB)
Overview
While we may not have reached our customer acquisition targets in the year under review, we have made some significant progress in that our actual customer base has increased to 4.4 million, which we believe represents about 10% of the market. Moreover, in the crucial area of network roll-out, with more than 1,500 sites added since March 2023, we have demonstrated our ongoing ability to add around 125 new sites per month, even if our expectation had been to achieve a level of 200. Our EBIT of negative KShs 45 billion was also well in line with our guidance.
Moreover, after being awarded our license in May 2023, we also successfully launched M-PESA in August 2023, and have already attained a base of 4.5 million registered customers.
Our data usage per customer is high at around 5.2 GB, higher than in most other markets in the Vodafone or Vodacom family, with the increase in ARPU driven by this trend. This is in contrast with our voice usage which remains below the monetisation levels we would like to see – an issue related to the interconnect rate being higher than expected, although this is expected to come down in the new financial year.
Branding
There has been some impact from a service restriction order arising out of the civil unrest and the resultant state of emergency, with a number of sites not able to provide data services, which has an influence on our overall strategy of data-usage promotion. Nevertheless, we have repositioned the brand towards the aspirations of the youth market, as a digital-first solution, and are therefore focusing on the urban market. We understand from surveys that we have done, that most of our customers are using the Safaricom line with a secondary SIM for data, while retaining the competing Ethio Telecom for voice usage.
Site-sharing
Our planned sharing of sites with Ethio Telecom has not been fully realised, with only 40% of the targeted 60–70% shared. This has necessitated an outlay in both time and capital to redress the coverage needs by building our own sites. Infrastructure sharing remains both a challenge and an advantage, and we are committed to finding the right balance which retains our independence while at the same time facilitating expansion through existing infrastructure.
