THE STANDARD
BUSINESS
Waiver of M-Pesa transaction charges affected Safaricom profits. [Elvis Ogina, Standard]
The free M-Pesa transactions for amounts below Sh1,000 at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic last year weighed down on Safaricom’s overall earnings for the year ended 2020.
The telco reported a 6.8 per cent drop in profit after tax of Sh68.7 billion for the year ended March 2021 from Sh73.7 billion in the previous period.
During this period, Safaricom enabled Kenyans to reduce the impact of the pandemic by waiving fees for transactions below a Sh1,000, which saw free transactions worth Sh4.4 billion processed.
Service revenue, mostly from voice and data, recorded a marginal decline of 0.3 per cent to close at Sh250.35 billion driven by double-digit growth in mobile data business, which grew by 11.5 per cent to Sh44.79 billion. Amid the coronavirus pandemic, some companies implemented work-from-home arrangements that helped boost Internet usage.
THE STANDARD
NEWS
Waiver of M-Pesa transaction charges affected Safaricom profits. [Courtesy]
The free M-Pesa transactions for amounts below Sh1,000 at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic last year weighed down on Safaricom’s overall earnings for the year ended 2020.
The telco reported a 6.8 per cent drop in profit after tax of Sh68.7 billion for the year ended March 2021 from Sh73.7 billion in the previous period.
During this period, Safaricom enabled Kenyans to reduce the impact of the pandemic by waiving fees for transactions below a Sh1,000, which saw free transactions worth Sh4.4 billion processed.
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Service revenue, mostly from voice and data, recorded a marginal decline of 0.3 per cent to close at Sh250.35 billion driven by double-digit growth in mobile data business, which grew by 11.5 per cent to Sh44.79 billion. Amid the coronavirus pandemic, some companies implemented work-from-home arrangements that helped boost Internet usage.
NSE hits 34-month high on Safaricom, banks
Summary
The gains by Safaricom, Equity, EABL, KCB and Cooperative Bank stocks which now account for 81 percent of total investor wealth on the NSE have raised the bourse to levels last seen on June 18, 2018 when the market closed at Sh2.62 trillion.
The five stocks have gained a combined Sh210.21 billion between April 8 and yesterday, aiding the market rise.
Analysts linked the rally to positive investor sentiment following the lifting of month-long curbs on travel and longer night curfews in Nairobi and four surrounding counties to control the spread of Covid-19.
Friday May 07 2021
Ethiopia issues new licence bid deadline
06 April 2021 | Melanie Mingas Ethiopia has again extended the deadline for telcos to bid for new operating licences.
In a tweet, the Ethiopian Communications Authority (ECA) said it had taken the eleventh-hour decision in response to requests from bidders, pushing the deadline from 5 April to 26 April, 10am local time.
ECA said on Twitter: Due to requests by bidders to have more time to finalize their offer in light of Covid market environment, ECA determined their question to be appropriate and the deadline for submission of bids for the 2 new Telecom Operator Licenses is extended.
Airtel withdrew from the bidding process earlier this year, but both Orange and Vodafone remain in the running, having confirmed to
Good morning ☀️ ️ For the first quarter of 2021, Amazon posted revenues of $108.5 billion. That s a revenue increase of 44% from the same period last year. In today s edition:
Nigeria s selling its power generating plants
BitPesa’s parent firm raises $50m
TC Insights
Africa’s last untapped telecoms market
In November 2020, the Ethiopian Communications Authority (ECA) officially opened the gates to bids from telecoms companies looking to snag two licences Ethiopia is offering. Ethiopia’s telecoms sector is a monopoly with the state-run Ethiotel facing no competition.
But last year, it made the first step to change that with plans to sell two telecoms licences. There’s clearly a big opportunity in Ethiopia as it is largely regarded as one of the largest untapped telecom markets on the continent.