Editor's Review

The company cited investment in Ethiopia as a reason for the drop its in half-year profit.


Giant Telecommunication company Safaricom has recorded a drop in its half-year performance.

In the results released by Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa on Friday, the company recorded a 10 per cent drop to sh33.37 billion.

The company cited investment in Ethiopia as among the reasons for the drop its in half-year profit.

"The period under review was weighed down by macro challenges, business slowdown due to elections and Safaricom Ethiopia start-up losses," said Ndegwa.

The company said it had invested USD 598 million in Ethiopia even as it seeks to broaden its market.

The Ethiopian market, the CEO has said, has shown promising results after the company generated Sh98.3 million in its first month of operation.

In Ethiopia, Safaricom now has 740,000 users with an average of 20,000 people joining the network daily.

Present at the briefing on half-year performance were New Safaricom chairman John Ngumi, CEO Peter Ndegwa and CFO Dilip Pal.

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