Bharti Airtel’s Kenyan unit has gained subscribers for a second consecutive quarter as rivals including the nation’s biggest operator, Safaricom, lost market share, Bloomberg reported.
Airtel’s subscribers increased by 19 percent to 8.7 million in the three months through March, which drove its mobile-money transactions, data, voice and SMS traffic higher, the Communications Authority said in a report.
While Safaricom’s customers were steady at 29.5 million, the company shed 2 percentage points of market share to 67 percent, the CA said. Airtel’s portion grew to 19.7 percent from 17.2 percent.
Airtel’s mobile-money users grew 22 percent to 3.39 million from the previous quarter, while the value of transactions grew to 1.88 billion shillings or $18.7 million. Safaricom’s mobile-money platform, known as M-Pesa, accounted for almost 80 percent of the 1.87 trillion shillings transacted in the quarter.
Safaricom in May said that it expects its earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) to rise by 7-12 percent in its financial year to next March, Reuters reported.
Safaricom Chief Financial Officer Sateesh Kamath told an investor briefing the company had exceeded its EBIT guidance for its year to the end of March 2018, posting an EBIT of 79.3 billion shillings or $789.45 million.
