Safaricom maintained a strong momentum in a difficult operating environment to announce a 19.9% increase in Net Income at the 2018 Full Year investor briefing.

Safaricom reported a net income growth of 14.1% to KES55.29 billion for the year ending 31st March, 2018.

“To achieve these results, we sharpened our focus on putting our customers first, delivering relevant products and services, and organizational effectiveness; a strategy that was exceptionally well executed considering the challenging business climate last year,” said CEO Bob Collymore via video from London where he is receiving specialized medical care.

For the year to 31st March, 2019, the company announced it would spend between KES35 billion-KES38 billion in infrastructure expansion.

The company maintained a steady momentum in mobile money business, adding 2.1 million new M-PESA customers and achieving revenue growth of 14.2% YoY to KES62.91 billion.

M-PESA contributed 28.0% of Safaricom’s service revenue from 20.9% in FY 2015, highlighting its central position as a key growth driver alongside mobile data, and displacing traditional voice and SMS.

The sustained demand for data remains a key growth driver for the company, with mobile data revenue increasing by 24% to KES36.36 billion.

The company added 562 new 4G sites to its network and said sustained investment in the network rollout plan has played a key role in growth.

“We believe that investing in our infrastructure will not only reinforce our competitive position, it also represents a compelling opportunity to accelerate our revenue growth, generate attractive incremental returns and further improve our strategic position in the Kenyan market,” the company said in a statement.