Safaricom Ethiopia has continued its strong customer growth trajectory, reaching 14.7 million active subscribers over a three-month period as of June 2026, reinforcing the operator’s path toward achieving EBITDA break-even by March 2027.
The latest figures represent a 46.1% year-on-year increase from 10.06 million active subscribers recorded in June 2025 and an additional one million customers compared to the end of March 2026. The continued growth is expanding the operator’s revenue base across voice, broadband, messaging and mobile financial services.
Voice subscribers increased by 37.02% year-on-year to 12.03 million, while data users reached 11.52 million. M-Pesa active subscribers grew to 5.69 million, although mobile money adoption continues to trail the uptake of voice and data services as cash remains the preferred payment method for many low-value transactions.
The customer growth comes despite challenging macroeconomic conditions, with Ethiopia’s inflation rising to 13.4% in May 2026 and the Ethiopian birr depreciating by 16.8% against the US dollar over the past year.
Safaricom Ethiopia also reported significant financial progress, reducing its annual loss to KES 21.2 billion for the year ended March 2026, down from KES 45.4 billion a year earlier. The improvement was supported by tariff adjustments and better operating conditions.
Service revenue reached KES 14.08 billion during the period, driven by strong growth across multiple business segments. Data revenue increased 69% to KES 9.56 billion, voice revenue rose 156.3% to KES 3.01 billion, messaging revenue grew 106.6% to KES 170 million, while fixed services generated KES 200 million. M-Pesa revenue also increased by 15.2% to KES 100 million.
The latest results underscore Safaricom Ethiopia’s continued momentum as it expands its customer base, strengthens revenue growth and moves closer to profitability in one of Africa’s largest telecommunications markets.
