Safaricom, the Kenyan telecommunications company, has revealed that its mobile money service platform, M-Pesa, generated an impressive Ksh.35.86 trillion in total transaction value in the last year, according to the audited results for the Financial Year ended March 2023. MPESA is still Safaricom’s top services earner, bringing in 39.7% of the revenue for the telco accounting 21.4% or Ksh.35.86 trillion in transactions volume.

Safaricom stated that the surge in M-Pesa revenue during the release of FY23’s audited results was due to a 16.2% increase in usage and growth of chargeable transactions per one-month active customer. The monthly active customers of M-Pesa also rose by 5.2% to 32.11 million, but the Average Revenue per Unit (ARPU) only rose by 1.9% YoY to Ksh.311.28.

While revealing its financial position, Safaricom also announced that it had finally received a license to operate mobile money services in Ethiopia. According to the CEO Peter Ndegwa, the development was a great milestone. Ndegwa also added that the company was “looking forward to launching and rolling out the service over the next few months” and that the potential for Ethiopia is immense.

Safaricom PLC’s financial year that ended in March 2023 showed a Ksh.52.5 billion profit, indicating a 22% decline from the Ksh.67.5 billion it recorded in 2022. Adil Khawaja, the chairperson of the group, linked the drop to events such as the Russia-Ukraine war and the 2022 General Election.