Safaricom Ethiopia generated 98.3 million shillings in its first month of operation.
This is after the telecommunication company began operations in the country in October.
Safaricom’s Ethiopia unit was launched by the company’s Chief Executive Officer Peter Ndegwa, his Ethiopian counterpart Anwar Soussa as well as President William Ruto and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
On 6th of October, Kenya’s Safaricom became the first private telecommunications operator in Ethiopia and also announced a deal for a mobile money service in Africa’s second most populous country.
Its entry into Ethiopia ended a monopoly under state-owned Ethio Telecom in the country of more than 110 million.
Speaking today, Ndegwa said the company invested 598 million dollars in Ethiopia’s operations and is encouraged by the early uptake of services in the new market.
“We are pleased with the commercial progress made in Ethiopia since launch of operations early last month. Most importantly we are enthusiatic on the growth opportunity in Ethiopia, with over 740,000 customers so far and 20,000 new customers joining the network daily,” he said.
In Kenya, Safaricom said its net income grew by 0.6 percent, supported by the 4.6 percent growth in general revenue.
Revenue from M-PESA rose to 8.7 percent while mobile data grew 11.3 percent.