Safaricom shareholders have approved a final dividend of KSh0.65 per share, amounting to KSh26.04 billion for the financial year ended 31st March 2024.

• This follows an interim dividend of KSh0.55 per share, totaling KSh22.04 billion, that was paid in March 2024 bringing the total dividend payout for the year to KSh1.20 per share, representing a total of KSh48.08 billion.
• The telco maintained a KSh1.20 per share dividend in net profit for the full fiscal year 2024, having recorded a mild 1.2% jump in profit after tax to shareholders in the period. 
• The strong performance was buoyed by a surge in service revenue in the Kenyan unit, particularly MPESA. However, the Ethiopian subsidiary dragged the overall performance with the board maintaining optimism of a break even scenario.

“In the financial year under review, the business displayed significant resilience in producing outstanding growth in both our top and bottom lines. This enabled us to achieve a major milestone, attaining, in our Kenyan business alone, earnings of more than US$1 billion before tax and interest (EBIT),” said Peter Ndegwa, Safaricom PLC Group CEO.

“Safaricom is the first company in the Eastern Africa region to attain this landmark number,” he added.

The approval was given at the 16th Annual General Meeting held today virtually following a recommendation from the Board of Directors earlier in March.

The dividend will be payable on or about 31 August 2024 to the Shareholders on the Register of Members as at the close of business on 31 July 2024.

“I am encouraged by the resilience demonstrated to deliver a very strong set of financial results, which enabled us to pay a similar dividend to last year’s despite the startup losses in Ethiopia. This success is attributable to strong strategy execution which has once again guided our decisions to deliver for our shareholders while giving more value to our customers.” Mr Adil Khawaja, Chairman of the Board said.

The telco exhibited resilience in their performance notwithstanding the challenging economic environment in both Kenya and Ethiopia, elevated interest rates, inflation and currency fluctuations impacting disposable income and business operations.

Safaricom has been on a bearish run for the past few weeks closing the previous trading session at KSh15.55, a year-to-date gain of 11.87%.

Data Privacy

During the meeting, concerns were raised over data breach following the recent customer rage on whether the service provider leaks customer data. Earlier, Safaricom had released a statement refuting the claims and emphasized on their commitment to user privacy and data protection.

“There has been a lot of speculation that Safaricom is being coerced to share data with relevant agencies.We want that assurance that even if there has been a lot of news that you have been coerced to share data..you will not be able to share it” a shareholder raised concerns during the meeting.

Leadership Changes

Safaricom has announced changes in the Board with Ory Okolloh and Francesco Bianco exiting from the firm.

The exits will take effect from 24 July, 2024 and 1 August, 2024 respectively, following the full board meeting held on 24 July, 2024. The Board will announce their replacement in due course.

Okolloh served as an independent director at Safaricom from February 2023 while Francesco Bianco was appointed as an alternate director to Michael Joseph in January 2019.